Bills Introduced Yesterday Would Limit Use of 'State Secrets'

Bills Would Limit Use of 'State Secrets'
Obama backs privilege in torture case

by Joseph Williams


WASHINGTON - House and Senate committees yesterday introduced bills that would sharply curtail the government's use of the "state secrets" privilege, a policy used by President Bush to argue that a lawsuit involving allegations of torture should be dismissed - and a position that the Obama administration has now adopted.

Drafted and filed separately by the House and Senate Judiciary committees, the legislation was filed just days after Justice Department lawyers working for the new administration told a federal appeals court that its position did not differ from the Bush administration's: the court should throw out a lawsuit that accuses Jeppesen Inc., of helping the CIA secretly transport five terrorism suspects overseas for harsh interrogations, on the grounds that the suit involved state secrets that, if revealed, could jeopardize national security.

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Nadler said protecting sensitive information "is an important responsibility for any administration and requires that courts protect legitimate state secrets while preventing the premature and sweeping dismissal of entire cases."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said the Senate version of the bill "will help guide the courts to balance the government's interests in secrecy with accountability and the rights of citizens to seek judicial redress" in cases of wrongdoing. The bill, he said, "does not restrict the government's ability to assert the privilege in appropriate cases. In light of the pending cases where this privilege has been invoked, involving issues including torture, rendition and warrantless wiretapping, we can ill afford to delay consideration of this important legislation."

Caroline Frederickson, director of the ACLU's Washington office, said she was "very pleased" by the legislation, which she called an important step to correct a doctrine that has been abused.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/12-6

appropriate legislation and not left up to the executive branch.

and eyes :)