Important NSA Hearing Happening Right Now

Zeke

Wired Liveblog of the hearing"The hearing involves two cases: one aimed at AT&T for allegedly helping the government with a widespread datamining program allegedly involving domestic and international phone calls and internet use; the other a direct challenge to the government's admitted warrantless wiretapping of overseas phone calls."2:45pm PDTJudge McKeown asks whether the government stands by President Bush's statements that purely-domestic communications, where both parties are in the United States, are not being monitored without warrants."Does the government stand behind that statement," McKeown asks. Garre: "Yes, your honor."But Garre says the government would not be willing to sign a sworn affidavit to that effect for the court record.[/b]3:10pm PDTAT&T attorney Michael Kellogg (right, entering the courthouse) has taken the podium, and, not surprisingly, insists the case has to be dismissed. He says AT&T customers have no actual proof or direct knowledge that their communications were forwarded to the government without warrants. "The government has said that whatever AT&T is doing with the government is a state secret," Kellogg says. He adds, "As a consequence, no evidence can come in whether the individuals' communications were ever accepted or whether we played any role in it."[/b]

day

I just heard a story on NPR while driving home that Bush wants to use spy satellites to spy on U.S. citizens. For the safety of our borders, of course.

Zeke

I just heard on NPR driving home Bush wants to use spy satellites to spy on U.S. citizens. For the safety of our borders, of course.

What bothers me the most is that the "kinds" of people that care about these sorts of attacks on personal freedoms and privacy have been marginalized so well.

EDIT:
Here is a WSJ link to what Day is talking about for anyone who is interested.

day

Watch this. I caught this on TV when it aired. This dude has balls.

day

Years from now people will ask why we did nothing.

Zeke

Years from now people will ask why we did nothing.

There isn't an emoticon that could adequately communicate how true this is.

4:10pm PDT

Expanding on that theme, the government argues that the Al-Haramain case needs to be thrown out because the secret document that the government accidentally gave the foundation is so secret that it is outside of the case. [/b]

Bondy claims the plaintiff's memories of the document can't be allowed into the case because the only way to test them is against the "totally classified" document.[/b]

"Once the document is out of the case, which it has to be since it is privileged, the only way to test the veracity of their recollections is to compare it to the document," Bondy says.

The lower court allowed the case to go forward based on the Al-Haramain Foundation lawyers' memories of the document, but ruled that the document itself was not allowed into the case.

Judge Hawkins wonders if the document is really that secret?

"Every ampersand, every comma is Top Secret?," Hawkins asks.

"This document is totally non-redactable and non-segregable and cannot even be meaningfully described," Bondy answers.[/b]

The government says the purported log of calls between one of the Islamic charity directors and two American lawyers is classified Top Secret and has the SCI level, meaning that it is "secure compartmented information." That designation usually applies to surveillance information.

4:25pm PDT

Judge McKeown on the TOP SECRET/TOTALLY document: "I feel like I'm in Alice and Wonderland."

Jon Eisenberg: "I feel like I'm in Alice in Wonderland, too."[/b]