Potential Evidence Surfaces of Bush's Illegal Spying

[Hissyspit]

http://www.alternet.org/rights/35807/

Potential Evidence Surfaces of Bush's Illegal Spying
By Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet
Posted on May 8, 2006, Printed on May 9, 2006

Five months after news of the NSA's warrantless spying program broke, and after we've learned numerous details of the program's extent, a Portland, Ore., attorney may have finally obtained hard evidence of illegal wiretaps by the government.

Thomas Nelson has been practicing administrative law for most of his professional life, but after Sept. 11 he first began offering pro bono work for immigrants detained in broad FBI terrorism sweeps. He is currently leading a little-discussed case that may contain the first documented evidence of an illegal wiretap and believes that, as a result, he himself has been subjected to warrantless -- and therefore illegal -- wiretaps and physical searches, the kind of clandestine operation that Nixon referred to as "black bag jobs." And as a result of extreme carelessness by the FBI, Nelson may have his hands on the only solid evidence of these searches.

http://www.alternet.org/images/managed/Story+Image_thumb_050806_story1.jpg

Attorney Thomas Nelson, during his March 23 appearance on Democracy Now!.

The story begins in February 2004, when the Office of Foreign Assets Control froze all funds of the Oregon branch of the Saudi Arabian charity Al-Haramain. Attorneys Asim Ghafoor and Wendell Belew defended the charity against the government's allegations that Al-Haramain Oregon was taking part in terrorist activities.

In August 2004, as a routine court procedure, the FBI provided the lawyers and defendants with documents relating to the trial. The FBI's lawyers accidentally released a document that showed the government had used logs of conversations between the lawyers and their clients, Soliman al-Buthi and the organization, to categorize Al-Haramain as a terrorist group. The catch is that the logs were obtained without a warrant.

- snip -

Which is exactly what Nelson did. But the only response he received reads like pure bureaucratic satire:
"Rest assured that safeguards are in place to protect the civil liberties of U.S. citizens. However, because of the highly classified nature of the program, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records responsive to your request. The fact of the existence or non-existence of responsive records is a currently and properly classified matter in accordance with Executive Order 12598, as amended. Moreover, the third exemption to FOIA provides for the withholding of information specifically protected from disclosure by statute. Thus, your request is also denied because the fact of the existence or non-existence of the information is exempted from disclosure pursuant to the third exemption."

MUCH MORE AT LINK

[Cooley Hurd]

1. K&R - with sincere hopes of impeachment for high crimes...

:kick::thumbsup:

[rodeodance]

2. "because of the highly classified nature of the program,"--This is the

real scary part--

[enough]

3. The whole article is fascinating -- a glimpse into the real meaning of the

illegal spying "program."

snip>

Nelson believes the clandestine searches of his home and office have ended. But he still feels a lingering sense of discomfort: "Every time I think about the possibility that they were in my home, I get very angry … My office is one thing, my home is something else. I don't want a bunch of spooks showing up there."

The fact that most frustrates Nelson is that no one ever tried to contact him or al-Buthi personally; rather, they resorted to what Nelson thinks must be illegal searches. "In retrospect," Nelson says, "I think they were trying to get the document back. If the searches were pursuant to FISA, it would be interesting to find out what they told the judge to get a warrant -- 'We've been conducting this illegal wiretapping program, we've embarrassed ourselves, there's this document out there that Nelson has, will you give us a warrant to get it back?'"

This is the circular logic that lies at the root of the debacle: In order to hide evidence of an illegal search program, the government is taking part in illegal searches.

snip>

The continued obfuscation of inquiries into the NSA program illustrates that the president's lawyers blur the distinction between protecting our national security and protecting the president's transgressions of the law from scrutiny.

There are a handful of individuals and organizations enduring intensive intimidation campaigns and spearheading legislation against the president and the NSA to put a stop to a program that is slowly undermining the basic tenets of our legal system.

more>

[shadowknows69]

5. Good they've pissed off the lawyers

taking away the security of attorney/client privledge is not going to go over well.

[sellitman]

4. This is why we have to stop Gen Hayden's nomination.

Point in case.

K&R

[Supersedeas]

6. this deserves mention if and when Hayden has confirmation hearings

[OregonBlue]

7. Ron Wyden, OR is on the intelligence committee. Hope he is

aware of the facts in this case! Any insight on it should be sent to him. He's really pissed.

[annabanana]

10. I am looking for his fax number...

I will mail him a hard copy if I can't find one.

[OregonBlue]

12. Sorry, I got busy and didn't check my posts. This link will

take you to the best site for contacting individual congress critters and all of the committees. Their phone, fax and email are listed.

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

[ThomCat]

8. Everyone should be aware of this. k&r

I hope this gets to trial, and I hope the government gets a lot of negative publicity from this.

[DemReadingDU]

9. K&R

[SeattleGirl]

11. I could be wrong, but I think the document that was not supposed

to be released is locked up for safekeeping here in Seattle, until the trial starts.

[dusty64]

13. And in LBN

there is an article states Democrats do NOT intend to focus their questioning of hayden on illegal spying. Had enough yet?

[dusty64]

14. Kick!

:kick:

[paparush]

15. Kick!! nt

[AzDar]

16. With this, and all other Constitutional usurpations...OSAMA WON. n/t