BUSHCO's "State Secrets Privilege" Mutates Into Torpedo Against Accountability & Constitution (LAT)

[kpete]

Shielded by secrecy

The Bush administration has misused the state secrets privilege to stifle legal oversight of its anti-terror policies. Congress must intervene.
By Ben Wizner
February 14, 2008

Of the myriad tactics the Bush administration uses to prevent oversight of its controversial anti-terror policies, none has been more successful, or more far-reaching, than the state secrets privilege. On Wednesday, the Senate considered, at long last, bipartisan legislation that would place reasonable limits on the executive branch’s use of the privilege to terminate lawsuits on dubious grounds. But for some — like my client, Khaled El-Masri, who was mistakenly kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by the CIA — Congress’ interest, though welcome, comes too late.The state secrets privilege, first recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court half a century ago, permits the government to block the release during litigation of information or evidence that poses a national security risk. No one seriously disputes the validity of the underlying doctrine: Litigants should not be permitted to use the discovery process to expose the identity of the next Valerie Plame.But in recent years, the state secrets privilege has mutated from a rule of evidence into a virtual grant of immunity. This administration has invoked the privilege not to protect sensitive information but to torpedo entire lawsuits alleging grave executive misconduct — before any requests for evidence have been made.

......................

So as the law stands, the U.S. can engage in torture, declare it a state secret and, by virtue of that designation alone, avoid any accountability for conduct that violates the Constitution and universal human rights guarantees. A broad range of executive misconduct has been shielded from judicial review under this doctrine.

................

Under a system built on respect for the rule of law, the government should have no privilege to violate our most fundamental legal rights and values. Congress should enact the State Secrets Protection Act as a first step toward restoring the role of the judiciary as a crucial check on executive abuse of power.

Ben Wizner is a staff attorney in the national legal department of the American Civil Liberties Union.

more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-wizner14feb14,0,4382923.story?track=ntothtml

[WinkyDink]

1. It would be so much easier if Bush were dictator.......