NSA Too Secretive For Lawsuit

Yet again, the Bush administration resorted to their favorite cop out line, "It'll only endanger our national security if you go through with this" when they challenged a lawsuit against the NSA spying program the other day. They asked the judge to dismiss it, because it would "risk national security."

There are cases in both Detroit and New York which hope to suspend the wiretapping program of intercepting phone calls and e-mails without a court order. In both of these cases (and what else is new?), the Bush administration has invoked what is known as the "state-secrets privilege." They've used this on several other occasions, even when the challenger to the NSA program or other incidences made a strong case of being abused on a particular occasion(s). They used this against Sibel Edmonds' testimony, even though no one in the room could point out anything she said to be inaccurate. They used this against a German man who was taken away to a prison, beaten, and tortured. Because of this "state-secrets privilege," the administration has gotten away with countless illegal acts, all because they can resort to, "If the public finds out about this, it'll endanger our national security."

Legal director for ACLU Michigan, Michael Steinberg, said this to reporters after the hearing, "If the court accepts the state-secret argument, we are truly facing a constitutional crisis in this country."

While Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit has yet to make a ruling on if the case can proceed or not, I am pessimistic from what has occurred in previous such cases that it will proceed.

It's frightening to think that some people in Washington are above the law. I can't just go around stalking people and then go to court asking them to dismiss the case on a "brother-secrets privilege," since I was only looking out for my brother's safety, claiming that it'd risk personal security if certain information got out. I'm guessing that wouldn't work for me or for any common person. But, for the Bush administration, they can declare wars based on false pretenses, spy on citizens, send some overseas to be tortured, and put gag orders on individuals who know the truth, to save their little behinds. They can't tell the truth, so they just keep on talking.

Link:

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=12793906&section=news