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February 17, 2006
With Friends Like These...
What the New York Times started, US District Judge Henry Kennedy seems intent on finishing: the destruction of any remaining usefulness of the NSA electronic intercept program. Stop the ACLU has the details:
On Thursday, a federal judge decided that Americans’ safety and security takes a back-seat to a left-wing groups’ right to view and promulgate top secret National Security Agency documents relating to the terrorism surveillance program. In this case, one of the left-wing groups has direct ties to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who was forced to step down from his perch on the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1987 over allegations he leaked classified information to news reporters.[...]
As a result of this [Kennedy's] decision, the US Justice Department is ordered to respond within 20 days to requests by a civil liberties group for documents about President George W. Bush’s NSA surveillance program. [...]
“Given the great public and media attention that the government’s warrantless surveillance program has garnered and the recent hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the public interest is particularly well served by the timely release of the requested documents,” Judge Kennedy brazenly pontificated from on high as he sat in a courtroom far from the battlefield.
Wait a minute, let's parse this statement a little. "Given the great public and media attention...the public interest is particularly well served by the timely release of the requested documents." Got it? I don't; I believe his assertion that mere public interest is reason enough to expose and destroy the usefulness of this program is utter hogwash.
What a disgrace.
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Comments
"Got it? I don't; I believe his assertion that mere public interest is reason enough to expose and destroy the usefulness of this program is utter hogwash."
Its not just public interest. The freedom of information act is clear: release the responsive documents.
Posted by: actus at February 17, 2006 04:53 PM
Implicit in my post is the assumption that some documents are exempt. It's very possible (as usual) that I could be mistaken, so I guess I need to do some further research.
Posted by: Jeff at February 17, 2006 09:26 PM
I dashed off that response just before putting the kiddo to bed.
I was operating under the tacit assumption that classified documents are exempt from the FOIA. I guess Judge Kennedy proved me wrong.
Posted by: Jeff at February 17, 2006 10:18 PM
"I was operating under the tacit assumption that classified documents are exempt from the FOIA. I guess Judge Kennedy proved me wrong."
Judge Kennedy did not say anything about which documents are exempt. He said they have to respond to the request. Which means releasing non-exempt documents and listing the exempt ones, and under what exemption.
Posted by: actus at February 18, 2006 11:15 AM
