Stories like this are the reason why we have reason for optimism in this country. This story is also one of the reasons why the ACLU is listed under “The Conscience of America,” because they inform of us police-state-like actions in the U.S. and use the tools at their disposal to stop them.
In 2005, it was reported that Bush had told the NSA it could warrantless surveillance of Americans. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get government documents about this spying-on-Americans program.
The government ignored them. Tactic 1: If the people ask you for internal documentation that would make you look bad, pretend you didn’t hear them.
So the ACLU sued.
The Department of Justice managed to come up with a bunch of documents the ACLU already had, because they had already been released. The rest of the documentation, the government said, were state secrets. Tactic 2: When Tactic 1 fails, claim that the information being sought is a state secret vital to national security. They wouldn’t even reveal how many documents existed, what they were about, how long they were, … Nothing.
You do know that the Department of “Justice” has as much to do with justice as the Internal Revenue “Service” has to do with service, right?
(This is something Baedes does, BTW, although he hasn’t yet in the story. He sometimes claims that he “can’t discuss it, because it’s part of an ongoing investigation.” And it’s bullshit when he says it, too.)
So the ACLU asked the judge to review the documents, in closed chambers, and decide for himself whether the DOJ is full of shit. (Those are my words, not the ACLU’s, by the way.)
The judge agreed.
“The Justice Department has not offered any legitimate justification for its refusal to release these crucial memos,” said ACLU National Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer. “These memos sought to supply a legal basis for a surveillance program that violated both the Constitution and statutory law. The public has a right to see them.”
“For years, the government has refused to disclose legal memos that justified its most controversial and illegal national security policies - whether the NSA’s illegal spying program, or the unlawful kidnapping, torture, and detention of prisoners,” said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “In our democracy, the government cannot keep vital information from the public by making vague, sweeping, and unsubstantiated claims about the need for blanket secrecy.”
U.S. District Court Judge Henry H. Kennedy ruled that the government must provide the legal memos to him on November 17 so that he can determine for himself whether at least portions of the memos can be released to the public.
(Original source: Court Orders Justice Department To Submit NSA Wiretapping Memos For Judicial Review)
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