DOJ to drop bomb on EFF vs. AT&T Options

[pebkac]

http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/

The federal government intends to invoke the rarely used "State Secrets Privilege" -- the legal equivalent of a nuclear bomb -- in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class action lawsuit against AT&T that alleges the telecom collaborated with the government's secret spying on American citizens.

Wow. Dubya's covering his own and his partners' asses.

[zetec]

and zetec... even if it is 3000, we're still talking about an infinitesimal percentage of the population... it doesn't bother me at all, especially when there's a possibility to save thousands of lives in a thwarted attack. why does it bother you so much?

that is possibly the stupidest thing i've ever heard.

for one, there's a very good chance the NSA isn't there to stop terrorism -- homeland security is the one doing the taps through the FISA court for that.

two, i'm just talking about the FBI there. not Homeland Security or the NSA.

three, oh wow, 3000 isn't much. but we also don't know WHY they are being tapped or what they're suspected of, if anything. for all we know, the only people being tapped by the NSA are people that the government sees as "enemies", and i don't mean the blowie-shit-up kind. I'm talking "deepthroat" kind, or members of the ACLU or the EFF.

four, what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

seriously, thats some dumb fucking logic right there. we have a court system, it grants approval to almost everything. there's no reason for them NOT to use that. yes, domestic spying has been going on a long time, and there's a LEGAL way for them to do it. If they're having to circumvent those means, there's something else going on that we should probably look into.






btw, "States Secrets Privelege" is technically only common law, hopefully the judge in this case (characterized as a "free thinker" by some article i read earlier today and don't have offhand) will actually refuse the request by the DOJ to dismiss the case... which has never been done before, but is nonetheless his privelege.