Justice Dept. Seeks to Block Suits on Spying

NYT reported The Bush administration has asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss two lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying litigating them would jeopardize state secrets.

We just learned how the British security services uncovered 20 major terrorist plots in Britain, and there are as many as 1,200 potential terrorist suspects that may now be in the UK. I suspect we have even more here, and these idiots dont want us to track their phone and email traffic with their bosses overseas.

In papers filed late Friday, Justice Department lawyers said it would be impossible to defend the program's legality without disclosing classified information that could aid terrorists. John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, invoked the state secrets privilege, writing that disclosure would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security. The administration laid out some of its supporting arguments in classified memos, filed under seal.

And I suspect some of the anti American media, like Al Jazeera, New York Times, and Washington Post, want to open that seal.

The motion, widely anticipated, involves two cases challenging an N.S.A. program that allows investigators to eavesdrop on Americans who communicate by phone or e-mail with people outside the country suspected of terrorist ties.

A very reasonable program

In New York, the Center for Constitutional Rights

Never heard of them

has asked a judge to stop the program, calling it an abuse of presidential power. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar suit in Detroit.

Al Qaeda would really like to stop the program too. Have they donated money to the ACLU?