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Gitmo lawyer worries about being wiretapped

Monday, September 24th, 2007

A Vermont lawyer representing a client being held at Guantanamo, Cuba, is worried that his phone is being tapped by the federal government.

He ought to be. The federal government may have interpreted the revised federal surveillance law to allow it to wiretap the lawyers of Guantanamo prisoners.

The Vermont Public Service Board heard testimony last week about the suspicions of lawyer Bob Gensburg of St. Johnsbury, who says his phone line has inexplicably gone dead and has been subject to strange buzzing noises. Gensburg is one of Vermont’s most respected lawyers, and he is not likely to be imagining these occurrences or to be making them up.

The PSB has already involved itself in the issue of unwarranted spying by the government, mounting an investigation into whether Verizon and AT&T had turned over phone calling records to the National Security Agency without warrants. The federal government has sued to block the PSB’s investigation, and those in other states, on the grounds that it would jeopardize national security to talk about the activities of the telephone companies.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, may have undermined the government’s case last month when he acknowledged in an interview that the telecommunications companies had helped the government carry out its program of warrantless electronic spying. It will be harder for the government to argue in court that it cannot talk about the phone companies’ role now that the nation’s spy chief has talked about it. The Public Service Board is now receiving briefs from the parties in the case in response to McConnell’s admission.

Meanwhile, Gensburg wonders if his calls to Afghanistan on behalf of his client are being monitored by the government. If so, it would be an unconscionable breach of the lawyer-client privilege.

Gensburg is not the only Vermonter with connections to Afghanistan. Others have relatives working there or friends living there. One editor of our acquaintance telephoned a friend in Kabul within the past two years. The question inevitably arises: Was the telephone contact monitored or subject to the government’s efforts at data mining?

Data mining and warrantless spying on international calls are being carried out in the name of the war on terrorism. So is the detention of Afghans and others at Guantanamo, without charges, with limited access to lawyers, and without recourse to the law. The possibility of unaccountable secret detention of American citizens still exists because of the erosion of the habeas corpus rights that are supposed to be part of our constitutional birthright. Last week the Senate failed to end a Republican filibuster of a bill authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy that would have restored our habeas corpus rights.

No one knows if Gensburg’s phone has been tapped, but the Bush administration’s disregard for constitutional protections creates an atmosphere of fear and suspicion that make the possibility seem real. One of the great advantages of a democracy is that we need not live in fear that the government will be rifling through our desk drawers or spying on private communications.

As for the telephone companies, it was their responsibility to know right from wrong and to stand up to the government when it sought their cooperation in illegal surveillance. The companies are seeking immunity in Congress for their actions. Instead, the investigations in Vermont and elsewhere need to move forward to hold those accountable, in government and the private sector, for actions that compromised our constitutional rights. No one in Vermont or anywhere else should have to fear that a phone call to Kabul is going to get them in trouble - unless the government has reasonable grounds to believe that a particular individual is actually involved in criminal activity.

For the government to monitor the phone calls of a lawyer or to cast out a vast electronic dragnet is for it to practice the methods of the Soviet Union or East Germany. The Vermont PSB now has an important role in checking the excesses of the government and private companies in spying on innocent Vermonters.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/OPINION01/70921003/1021/OPINION01

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Guantanamo lawyers barred from visiting or writing prisoners

Monday, September 24th, 2007

By Ben Fox

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Attorneys for at least 40 Guantanamo Bay prisoners have been barred from visiting or writing their clients because of a judge’s order dismissing legal challenges to the men’s confinement, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.

A Justice Department lawyer informed the attorneys of the new restrictions in an e-mail that cited Thursday’s dismissal of their cases by District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina in Washington.

“In light of this development, counsel access (both legal mail and in-person visits) is no longer permitted,” Justice Department lawyer Andrew I. Warden said in the e-mail.

Urbina’s ruling, which covered 16 legal petitions filed on behalf of 40-60 detainees, invalidated an order that establishes rules for contact with detainees, Warden said.

Challenges are still pending for dozens of other detainees with the Supreme Court set to consider whether Congress had the right to strip the prisoners of the right to contest their confinement with petitions of habeas corpus.

The Justice Department letter outlined a series of legal steps that would be required before the attorneys could resume contact with the detainees.

But attorney Wells Dixon said he would most likely not be able to complete those measures in time for a scheduled visit with a Libyan client in October.

That visit is crucial, Dixon said, because he is in the midst of trying to prevent the government from transferring the client back to Libya, where his lawyers fear he will be tortured.

“This is just the latest example of the government’s efforts to frustrate counsel access to detainees,” he said.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, said the U.S. was following the laws that govern the legal rights of Guantanamo detainees and officials were pleased with Urbina’s ruling.

“We have afforded detainees at Guantanamo with greater access to attorneys than any other combatants in the history of warfare,” Gordon said.

The U.S. holds about 340 men at the detention center in Cuba on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Most of the prisoners have filed petitions of habeas corpus, a legal challenge to their confinement.

Last year, the U.S. Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, which stripped all detainees of the right to file habeas petitions a fundamental legal right under the U.S. Constitution.

The Supreme Court has said it will consider the law in its next term.

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New Police “Sneak and Peak” Technology Exclusive

Monday, September 24th, 2007

Zeik Heil welcome to Rochdale, have you anything to declare?

Smile! You’re on fascist candid camera!

Shocking new technology allow police to film inside your car, it also sends and retrieves information about you in seconds.

By J A Blacker MSc IMI (Science Correspondent) and Mick Meaney
RINF Alternative News

Driving along Queensway, Rochdale, UK, we came upon what I can only describe as some sort of Nazi style road checkpoint. The car was parked up immediately to allow us to investigate further.

Crossing the road I could see a 2-mile line of traffic, not much fun for motorists stuck in that, I thought.

As I got closer to the Nazi style checkpoint there were police officers just mulling about not appearing to do very much.

I observed the top cop supervising with the assistance of Customs and Excise.

These chaps were not happy to see me, I wonder why? Was it the fact they told me not to take their picture and I said, “It’s a public place I can take pictures all I like, smile”.

They become even more uncomfortable when they learnt a RINF Alternative News reporter was on the scene and demanded to see a press pass despite all photographs being taken on public property.

The guy who lost this car was less than happy, no insurance got him arrested and his car towed.

This chap has dark windows, which breaks the law because the cameras can’t video the occupant’s private space.

This is the cop car that sneakily films inside your car.

This is the camera that records your private space inside your car and sends the registration and picture via wireless to Nazi cop HQ to be processed within 10 seconds.

This also means the police can now operate a mobile network of “intelligent CCTV” cameras within the UK as we slowly become the victim of a blanket surveillance program.

This is my car with the 911 was an inside job / Infowars sticker - I took it upon myself to formally use the pub car park for what it was originally intended prior to the fascist state taking over bid.

20 minutes after my first courtesy call, the Junter had shut up shop, only the removal truck remains – nice work if you can get it. Smile and say Zeik Heil! Welcome to Rochdale.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 2:58 am and is filed under Surveillance, Civil Liberties & Human Rights News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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