Obama still fighting release of classified surveillance document

posted at 10:11 am on June 1, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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The Obama administration continues to defy the judge in the lawsuit over warrantless electronic surveillance in the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation case, refusing this weekend to release a top-secret document and continuing a Bush administration claim of “state secrets” in the case.  The judge has ordered the lawyers to court to explain why he shouldn’t just issue a summary judgment on behalf of the plaintiffs, which the Department of Justice opposes:

The Obama administration insists it has no obligation to provide access to a top secret document in a wiretapping case, setting up a showdown next week with the judge who ordered it released.

Justice Department lawyers, in a response Friday with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, also argued that Judge Vaughn Walker had no cause to penalize the government over its refusal to turn over the document.

Walker on May 22 threatened to punish the administration for withholding the document, which he ordered given to lawyers suing the government over its warrantless wiretapping program.

The judge has ordered department lawyers to appear before his court Wednesday to make the case why he should not award damages to the now-defunct Oregon chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. That group is challenging the wiretapping program.

Barack Obama incurred the wrath of the Left by reversing himself on the “state secrets” doctrine almost as soon as he took office. This case gave Obama the best possible opportunity to put his words on the campaign trail into action.  The Left seized on this particular case because the government accidentally released the report showing that they had conducted warrantless electronic surveillance on Al-Haramain, which was the first (and I believe only) evidence of a specific target of the Bush-era Terrorist Surveillance Program at the NSA.  Its opponents want the document released to prove that the TSP was an unnecessary and illegal intrusion by the government on American residents.

Obama the candidate agreed with them.  Obama the President … not so much.

I wrote at the time:

If Obama meant what he said on the campaign trail, one would expect him to side with Al-Haramain.  After all, he spent a great deal of time talking about how the Bush administration ran roughshod over the rights of Americans and American residents with his NSA program.  Wouldn’t that include Al-Haramain in this instance, according to Obama’s own construct?

Now, suddenly, Obama seems to appreciate the need for “state secrets” and surveillance on international communications involving suspected terrorists.  That suits me fine, as I think the TSP program was on solid ground from the beginning, but it’s more than a little hypocritical for the Obama administration to suddenly switch sides and support the Bush position without so much as an “oops”.   It certainly seems that Obama has endorsed the Bush policies that he once criticized in harsh terms, a remarkable turnaround for someone in office only a month.

How does that Hope and Change feel now, Obama voters?  Anyone ready to give President Bush an overdue apology?

Their continued efforts to block the release of this report underscores the profound change Obama has made on this issue.  Obama still owes Bush his apology for getting it wrong the last two years.

Blowback

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