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White House Fails to Comply With Subpoenas on Domestic Surveillance Program

Follow up to previous posting on the government’s domestic surveillance program, today’s Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On The Bush Administration’s Failure To Comply With Subpoenas For Warrantless Wiretapping Documents, August 20, 2007: “Today was the deadline for the Administration to comply with the Judiciary Committee’s subpoenas for documents related to the legal justifications for and President’s authorization of the warrantless wiretapping program. The Administration failed to adequately comply, despite our granting an extension of more than a month past the original return date. The Administration has produced no documents, no adequate basis for noncompliance, no privilege claims, and no complete privilege log.”
Related news and government documents:

  • ACLU: “In an unprecedented order, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has required the U.S. government to respond to a request it received last week by the American Civil Liberties Union for orders and legal papers discussing the scope of the government’s authority to engage in the secret wiretapping of Americans. According to the FISC’s order, the ACLU’s request “warrants further briefing,” and the government must respond to it by August 31. The court has said that any reply by the ACLU must be filed by September 14…A copy of the FISA court order, the ACLU’s motion to the FISC, as well as information about the ACLU’s lawsuit against the NSA and other related materials are available here.”
  • Press release: “Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee and a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee… wrote [August 16, 2007] to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff seeking answers in response to reports that the Bush Administration will undertake an unprecedented expansion in the use of advanced spy satellites for surveillance of Americans.”
  • WSJ: U.S. to Expand Domestic Use Of Spy Satellites
  • FAS: Unclassified study on intelligence capabilites for domestic surveillance programs: Civil Applications Committee (CAC) Blue Ribbon Study, Independent Study Group Final Report, September 2005
  • Internet Archive: Judicial Proceeding, Domestice Surveillance Program, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, San Francisco, California, ID: 200464 – 08/15/2007 (Recorded and Copied from C-SPAN and Uploaded to the Internet Archive): “U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard oral arguments in two cases on the government’s warrantless wiretapping program. The Court will decide whether or not to dismiss the two cases under the “state secrets” privilege, which bars the presentation of evidence in court that could threaten national security. Lower court judges in both cases rejected the government’s attempts to get the cases dismissed.
    The plaintiffs in Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc. v. Bush are an Oregon branch of a Saudi charity that has been investigated for alleged terrorist ties. They argue that they have a top-secret document proving they were a direct target of National Security Agency surveillance.
    Hepting v. AT&T is a class action on behalf of a group of AT&T customers who allege that the company intercepted their phone calls and electronic mail, then disclosed the information to the NSA.”
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