Judge: Feds must answer ACLU demands

[rodeodance]

Source: ap via USAToday






Judge: Feds must answer ACLU demands
Posted 14h 33m ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government must answer a watchdog group's demands to release records about the nation's classified terrorist spying program, the chief judge of a secretive national security court has ruled.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which announced the order Friday, said it was the first time the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had responded to a request filed by the public.

In her 2-page order, dated Aug. 16, Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly called the ACLU's demand "an unprecedented request that warrants further briefing."

The ACLU last week asked the court to explain publicly the need to revamp laws that expand the government's authority to spy on foreigners. The request was prompted by Congress' approval earlier this month of legislation updating the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to allow the government to eavesdrop on terror suspects who are believed to be foreigners without first getting a court warrant.





Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-08-17-fisa_N.htm?csp=34

[Kagemusha]

1. I'm not sure "answer" is the word I'd use. Reply to, would be accurate.

But anyone reading this and expecting this is an order to submit to the demands and fulfill them would be woefully mistaken... as I was when I first read about the matter before reading more carefully.

[tom_paine]

2. Ah, if only Authoritarian Tyrants respected the Rule of Law

But they do not, and Bushler/Cheney are no different than their spiritual antecedents in this regard.

Whatever some judge said, they will refuse, offer a blizzard of nonsensical justifications and rationalizations that insult the intelligence, then step back and laugh when nobody dares challenge it.

Then, the judge's pathetic and puny words, so small in the face of a Tyrant's Will, fade to the nothingness they were made of in the first place...that of the Constitution, a null and defunct document who's corpse is still fresh and pretty, and useful enough to the Bushevik Tyrants that they will continue to pretend and lie that they love and respect it.

But the idea that Bushler and his Minions are bound by any any puny judge's pathetic words unable to be backed up by actions:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I'm sorry, but that is certainly something, so alien to the life of Imperial Amerika, circa 2007, as for me to be in full disbelief that such a thing even could happen...until it happens.