IN LATEST ACLU SECRECY LEGAL BATTLE, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SUBMITS TOP SECRET DOCUMENTS TO THE COURT THAT PLAINTIFF LAWYERS ARE FORBIDDEN TO SEE

The ACLU has filed at least two suits against the government related to secrecy issues--particularly relating to the USA Patriot Act's wider latitude for the FBI in 'terrorism investigations.' In this latest incident, the government submitted documents to the court but refused to allow the plaintiff attorneys to view the material. Typically, 'secret evidence' is rarely used in civil cases, but even in those rare cases, these types of documents may be reviewed by the plaintiffs provided that it is "not divulged to the public."

In one incident, the Justice Dept submitted classified documents with some seemingly innocuous passages redacted on the grounds of 'national security.' The judge in the case disallowed these redactions and released the entirety of the documents to the ACLU. They have posted the comparison of the released documents with the ones the government submitted on their website.

The WashPost article quotes an ACLU attorney with respect to the government's attempt to hide some of these passages, which included a quotation from a 1972 Supreme Court decision, and a description of the types of business engaged in by one of the co-plaintiffs with the ACLU. The passages seem to have no connection to 'national security' to any imaginable degree.

"It's so innocuous," [ACLU attorney Ann] Beeson said. "It's hard to imagine how they would think this would be a threat to national security to divulge this kind of information."
[...]
"It casts suspicion on the whole system," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. "When the administration says national security is at stake, you really have to wonder if it is or isn't."

Mr. Aftergood makes a point that I have continued to argue since the secret energy meetings that Mr. Cheney conducted with leaders of the oil and energy production industries came to public scrutiny. I think this administration likes to use the top secret label to protect themselves from scrutiny, not just to protect national security interests. Here is some interesting information about the use of secrecy classification by the Bush administration during the last fiscal year, from the article--

In fiscal 2003, federal agencies decided to classify documents more than 14 million times, a 25 percent increase from the year before, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, which keeps track of classification decisions. At the same time, the total number of pages declassified by the government dropped to its lowest level in at least 10 years, according to the office.

Finally, you have to wonder what it says about this administration when members of the President's own party are willing to investigate the too frequent use of secret classifications. The 9-11 Commission Report showed exactly how effective open government can be, and argued that this administration attempts to conduct government behind closed doors at nearly all times--well, so long as it is convenient for them politically!

In its final report released last month, the Sept. 11 commission sharply criticized the government for classifying too much information. It said the 2001 attacks might have been postponed if the government had publicized the August 2001 arrest of an alleged al Qaeda conspirator. A House subcommittee headed by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) has scheduled for Tuesday a hearing on overclassification titled, "Too Many Secrets."