Blocking the Gate to the Law

The State Secrets Privilege is the bludgeon the Bush Administration uses to block access to the law. It has been used against Sibel Edmonds to silence her; it has been used to coverup the kidnapping of a German citizen, Khalid El-Masri, and his rendition to Afganistan for torture; and it is currently blocking an ACLU lawsuit challenging the NSA warrentless wiretaps.

Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” ~ Before the Law, Franz Kafka

Sibel Edmonds
She was an FBI interpreter who discovered and reported misconduct to her superiors. She was fired for her honesty and she sued for wrongful termination. At this point, in October, 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft imposed the State Secret Privilege, claiming that her employment was a national security issue. The following year as Ms. Edmonds was preparing to file a deposition in a lawsuit 9-11 families had filed. She was going to testify that the FBI had prior knowledge of the World Trade Center attack. Ashcroft invoked the Privilege again to prevent her testifying. Going farther, Ashcroft put a gag order on her, she is forbidden to talk about her employment or anything she may have witnessed on the job. Both her suit and the 9-11 suit were dropped for lack of evidence. In 2005, Ms. Edmonds was blocked from attending the appeals court hearing of her own lawsuit and no opinion was published by the court explaining why it was dismissing the suit. It was a secret court hearing.

The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside.

Khalid El-Masri
Khalid El-Masri was the wrong man. The CIA was looking for someone named Al-Masri but Khalid was close enough for government work. Heading for vacation in Macedonia, he was detained by Macedonian borderguards for several weeks and, upon release, kidnapped by the CIA. He was rendered to the infamous salt pit in Afganistan, which makes Gitmo look like Club Med. During four months captivity he was interrogated, beaten, and raped. He was released in May, 2005, two months after the government discovered he was an innocent man. His lawsuit was blocked by government claims that all evidence of his captivity was a national security issue, State Secret Privilege.

The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate. There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests.

NSA Warentless Wiretapping
Just today, the government declared that it doesn't matter if NSA wiretaps are legal or illegal. Enquiring whether the government or the phone companies has acted illegally endangers national secruity, they claim. Don't inquire about the law because the law is a State Secret.

UPDATE: The government is claiming "state secrets privilege" in both the ACLU case in Michigan and the Electronic Frontier Foundation case in California. Here is the Feds brief in the EFF case.

"This administration wants to turn the state secrets privilege into an all-purpose weapon the government can use to cover up its own illegal activities," said Michael J. Steinberg, Legal Director of the ACLU of Michigan.

During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this one seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law. He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud, later, as he grows old, he still mumbles to himself....The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you. I’m going now to close it.”

tag: nsa, sibel Edmonds, El-Masri, state secret, state secret privilege