1115.org

Reuters reported on Saturday that, as expected, the Bush administration has invoked the state secrets privilege to ask for the dismissal of two lawsuits that challenge the constitutionality of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program.

The report was reading pretty much as expected. The government had asserted that allowing the cases to proceed

…would jeopardize secrets in the ongoing “war on terror.”
[…]
The claim was accompanied by an affidavit by Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, who said disclosure of any information about the NSA’s “Terrorist Surveillance Program” would “cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”

(Doesn’t anyone have the legal standing to file an amicus brief pointing out that the information that would be disclosed if the case were allowed to proceed would cause exceptionally profound embarrassment to the entire Bush administration, especially the President and the Attorney General? They’d be wiping egg off their face for a entire month, except for the fact that the revelations would lead to so much loss of face, there’d be nothing left to wipe.)

Attorneys with the two organizations that filed the suits – the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and the ACLU in Detroit – were quoted, predictably criticizing the government’s move.

But then right at the end, the report certainly grabbed my attention.

Both lawsuits also argue the NSA program threatens the ability of defense lawyers in terrorism-related cases to speak freely with their clients, a so-called chilling effect.

And here’s what the government has to say in response:

“Plaintiffs cannot credibly claim that they face any added marginal chill of surveillance … when their clients facing terrorism-related investigations or charges may be subject to surveillance pursuant to other means,” the government said.

I’ve tried very hard to put some other construction on it, but no matter at what angle I hold that statement up to the light, it still says: “We’d be listening in to their conversations with their lawyers even without the NSA warrantless wiretapping program.”

Now I’d really love to see these cases come to trial. Just to watch the government argue that the NSA warrantless wiretapping program really doesn’t hurt anyone, because we’d be doing all the same things under other programs anyway. Programs which can’t be challenged because no one knows about them. And President Bush certainly isn’t ever again going to make the mistake of confirming another secret NSA program. His Mamma didn’t raise no fools.