Court: NSA can refuse to say if lawyers wiretapped

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency does not need to tell lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees whether their phones were tapped as part of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The NSA has refused to say whether it listened in on the conversations of the lawyers who are advising detainees being held at the U.S. naval facility in Cuba. The NSA says even confirming the existence of such wiretaps would jeopardize national security.

A federal judge in New York agreed, saying the super-secret agency can't be forced to disclose information about the program.

"Confirming or denying whether plaintiffs' communication with their clients has been intercepted would reveal information about the NSA's capabilities and activities," U.S. District Judge Denise Cote wrote.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/ap_on_go_ot/domestic_spying_lawsuit;_

Of course we wiretapped you, you silly lawyer!

Attorney/Client Privilege. The spine of our judicial system.

If you think suspension of Habeas Corpus is bad, this precedent could destroy any possibility to reverse the police state momentum.

This is but one tiny facet of the FACT that legally, we are no different now from Nazi Germany.

The only thing that keeps us from being so is the ENFORCEMENT of the laws, not the laws themselves.

The thing is, we all know no matter WHAT that judge said the Bushies would ignore him and keep doing what they were doing, changing only enough or camoflauging only enough, to give them the tiniest bit of Plausible Deniability...all that is necessary to "get away with it" these days...at least for Loyal Bushies wielding authoritarian power in the name of "national security".

shut down the fucking nsa, cia and all of the rest of these secret operations.
there is no place for them in a democratic society.

there should be nothing our government or agencies do that needs to be hidden.

Cote, Denise
Born 1946 in St. Cloud, MN

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Nominated by William J. Clinton on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Mary Johnson Lowe; Confirmed by the Senate on August 9, 1994, and received commission on August 10, 1994.

Education:
St. Mary`s College, B.A., 1968

Columbia University, M.A., 1969

Columbia Law School, J.D., 1975

Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. Jack Weinstein, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, 1975-1976
Private practice, New York City, 1976-1977, 1985-1991
Assistant U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York, 1977-1985
Chief, Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, 1991-1994
Special assistant to assistant U.S. attorney general, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1994


Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Female

:woohoo:

So much for the era of privledged information. It was nice while it lasted.

Nobody would ever have suspected that the NSA was capable of intercepting a call, or doing so.

That's what they were fucking created to do!

Is it a police state yet? I think so.

That is one DAF!

or the former U.S.S.R..... all thatBS talk about freedom from the right wing. Well, the proof is here. They are cowardly liars.

Godwin can go straight to hell.

:D

They need to follow the example set by Pakistani lawyers and take to the streets about this. Why bother to become a lawyer when the deck is stacked against you before you even get to trial?