9th Circuit
Posted at 2:21pm on Nov. 16, 2007 9th Circuit: Responding to NY Times Waives State Secrets Privilege
Heads We Win The PR War, Tails You Lose The Real War
By Dan McLaughlin
When the New York Times disclosed a top-secret program of surveilance of international phone calls with suspected terrorists, the Bush Administration faced a critical choice: defend the program in public - including correcting misimpressions left by press reports - or try to preserve such secrecy as had not been shattered by the Times. Both choices had substantial downsides, but today the Ninth Circuit held (in a decision that is otherwise somewhat of a split decision* in a challenge brought to the program by "Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a designated terrorist organization, and two of its attorneys") that the Bush Administration waived its legal defense that a full judicial review of the program would involve disclosure of state secrets because the Administration responded to the Times in a way that confirmed the program's existence and some facts about it:
Read On...
Posted in 9th Circuit | National Security | NYT | Surveillance — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »
