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Catch 22 Alive and Well in Surveillance Lawsuit
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ShareJune 20, 2006 9:05 AM
The United States government says a lawsuit brought against AT&T over government surveillance must be dismissed because the state secrets privilege prevents the company from either admitting or denying the allegations.
Even if the program was found to be illegal, the government argues the court could not take action "because to do so would confirm" the allegations and put the country at risk.
"Finally the Administration has come out and flatly said what it has hinted at throughout its arguments: that the program is above the law," says a response from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the lawsuit alleging illegal electronic surveillance of private citizens.
The government's brief was filed late Friday in federal court in San Francisco.
The government brief says the court should dismiss the lawsuit because "adjudication of Plaintiff's claims risks or requires the disclosure of protected state secrets and would thereby risk or cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the Untied States."
The Electronic Frontiers Foundation says it will continue its opposition "to this radical assertion of power."
June 20, 2006 | Permalink | User Comments (3)
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It looks like fascism is coming back in style.
One day we will look back and wonder how the American people were so willing to scrap the Constitution w/in only a few years.
Posted by: wick | Jun 20, 2006 12:33:33 PM
How come when John Miller reported the NSA warrantless wiretap program in his book THE CELL published in 2002 nobody
thought it was a big "national security" deal and now we are having federal investigations about how it was "leaked" in 2004 to the New York Times?
Miller was an ABC news reporter when he wrote the book so why did ABC news ignore what he was revealing?
Also why did Miller's description of FBI
"rapid response teams" being sent to spy on the domestic warrantless wiretap subjects not arouse any interest by the news media?
This all sounds much more detailed than the
recent domestic spying "revelations" but we get no follow-up from ABC news.
Posted by: rex | Jun 20, 2006 1:18:52 PM
Not really much news here - there was another suit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or perhaps the same suit, where the Bush administration entered the same arguments. The other suit should have been mentioned.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation does an excellent job looking out for the rights and privacy of online users and is entirely supported by donations.
Posted by: Chris | Jun 20, 2006 1:33:13 PM
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