That's at the heart of a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and they actually won the right to have Justice Department employees tell the truth - in the open - in public. No 'state secrets' defense for you, Alberto Gonzales.
It filed the motion after the public disclosure in December of a secret government program that allowed investigators to eavesdrop on international communications between Americans and people suspected of terrorist ties.
The class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York in 2002 on behalf of hundreds of Arab and Muslim men who were detained and deported as part of the government's investigation into the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The center had asked the judge to order the government to disclose whether telephone, e-mail or other communication between detainees and their lawyers had been monitored or intercepted since the detainees left the country.
The Justice Department said its lawyers and support staff hadn't received any attorney-client communications and that such conversations wouldn't be used in its defense.
Right...
Wait, it gets better:
The center said it would seek testimony from former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, both named in the lawsuit.
Let's see you make an end run around that one, Gonzales.
No comments:
Post a Comment