[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
9/11 See other 9/11 Articles Title: Sibel Edmonds, NSA Spying, State Secrets and Kafk Sibel Edmonds, NSA Spying, State Secrets and Kafka There's been a lot of outrage these last couple of days about the absurd court hearings in the NSA spying cases where the US government basically said to the court 'Yeah, we could tell you, but we'd have to kill you.' None of this comes as a surprise to me because I've been following the case of former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds for a number of years. As I've been saying, Sibel has been the canary in this coal mine since 2002. In many ways, Sibel's situation regarding State Secrets is much worse than what we've seen this week. For starters, her passport, drivers license and birth certificate all contain Top Secret information. Let's first review the court cases pertaining to illegal spying this week. Super Blogger Scott Horton gives a representative overview Beyond Kafka Consider this report of a trial proceeding in Kafkaesque absurdity, which is to say, in accordance with Bush Administration secrecy notions, in San Francisco. Coverage courtesy of Wired magazine: 2:20pm PDT Judge Harry Pregerson suggests the government is asking the courts to "rubber stamp" the governments claim that state secrets are at risk "Who decides whether something is a state secret or not? ... We have to take the word of the members of the executive branch that something is a state secret?" [U.S. Attorney] Garre counters that the courts should give "utmost deference" to the Bush Administration. Judge Pregerson: "What does utmost deference mean? Bow to it?" 2:30pm PDT All three judges are giving Garre skeptical questions about the power of the state secrets privilege. Theyre also getting stonewalled a bit. "Was a warrant obtained in this case?" Judge Pregerson asks. "That gets into matters that were protected by state secrets," Garre replies. 2:45pm PDT Judge McKeown asks whether the government stands by President Bushs statements that purely-domestic communications, where both parties are in the United States, are not being monitored without warrants. "Does the government stand behind that statement," McKeown asks. Garre: "Yes, your honor." But Garre says the government would not be willing to sign a sworn affidavit to that effect for the court record. Pregerson, by his record, is the most liberal judge on the panel, and he clearly thinks the government is just looking for a blank check for their secret program. But the other two judges arent thrilled either. They seem perplexed that the government attorney cant swear under oath that the Bush Administration isnt warrantlessly spying on domestic phone calls. Note the core: whether the Government is breaking the law is a "state secret." This will, I believe, be used by historians as a hallmark for the entire Gonzales Justice Department: the use of the state secrets doctrine to cloak criminal conduct. The question now is whether we still have judges with a spinal column. More from Wired: Expanding on that theme, the government argues that the Al-Haramain case needs to be thrown out because the secret document that the government accidentally gave the foundation is so secret that it is outside of the case. Bondy claims the plaintiff's memories of the document can't be allowed into the case because the only way to test them is against the "totally classified" document. "Once the document is out of the case, which it has to be since it is privileged, the only way to test the veracity of their recollections is to compare it to the document," Bondy says. The lower court allowed the case to go forward based on the Al-Haramain Foundation lawyers' memories of the document, but ruled that the document itself was not allowed into the case. Judge Hawkins wonders if the document is really that secret? "Every ampersand, every comma is Top Secret?," Hawkins asks. "This document is totally non-redactable and non-segregable and cannot even be meaningfully described," Bondy answers. The government says the purported log of calls between one of the Islamic charity directors and two American lawyers is classified Top Secret and has the SCI level, meaning that it is "secure compartmented information." That designation usually applies to surveillance information. 4:25pm PDT Judge McKeown: "I feel like I'm in Alice in Wonderland." Eisenberg: "I feel like I'm in Alice in Wonderland, too." Now, let me highlight some differences between this particular case (I'll call it 'NSA' for simplicity) and Sibel's case (in no particular order): a) her date of birth Sibel's drivers license, her birth certificate and her passport are all therefore classified Top Secret. So, yep, let's focus on the outrages of the NSA case and the abuse of the State Secrets Privilege, but let's also remember that Sibel's case is Ground Zero for abuse of State Secrets Privilege. If we didn't let them get away with it in her case, they probably wouldn't dare attempt the stunts we saw yesterday. Check out the folly of her situation in this YouTube Update - here it is [link:www.letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com|Let>http:// [link:www.letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com|Let Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
Off with their heads! Verdict first, trial after!
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
Seems we have Mad Hatters and the Queen of Hearts in charge...
|
||
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
[Register]
|