Text 25818, 84 rader
Skriven 2006-12-13 20:47:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: ACLU
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Here we have the ACLU knowing breaking the law by having and retaining 
classified materials.  The defense department should immediately move 
in, confiscate the files and shut down the office in question.


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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--
secretdocument1213dec13,0,5424769,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

ACLU: Government seeks document marked `secret'
 
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press Writer

December 13, 2006, 4:53 PM EST

NEW YORK -- The government is demanding that the American Civil 
Liberties Union turn over a classified document that the civil rights 
group said Wednesday would be embarrassing to the government and 
pertains to the war against terrorism. 

The ACLU filed papers under seal in U.S. District Court this week 
seeking a judicial order letting it keep the 3 1/2-page document, issued 
in December 2005, which it said "provides a set of general policy 
guidelines on a matter of longstanding concern to the ACLU." 

In the court papers, unsealed Wednesday, the ACLU said release of the 
document might be "mildly embarrassing" to the government but could not 
threaten national security and did not concern troop movements, 
communications methods, intelligence sources or the like. 

The ACLU said the designation of the generally unremarkable document as 
classified "appears to be a striking, yet typical, example of 
overclassification." 

The civil rights group said that it received a grand jury subpoena from 
the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan on Nov. 20, nearly a month after 
the ACLU received the document unsolicited and soon after it refused to 
comply with a prosecutor's demands to turn it over. 

Although it did not reveal the subject matter of the document, the ACLU 
noted that its issues of longstanding concern include the government's 
execution of its "war on terror" and its attempts to get documents 
related to government policies and practices regarding torture and the 
government's compliance with the Geneva Conventions. 

It said it also has pressed the government to renounce torture and other 
forms of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and hold accountable 
senior officials who authorized or condoned such activities. 

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said it was the "first time in 
our 86-year history we've been asked to make a document disappear from 
our files." 

Romero said the subpoena served no legitimate investigative purpose and 
trampled on fundamental First Amendment rights. 

"The government's attempt to suppress information using the grand jury 
process is truly chilling and is unprecedented in law and in the ACLU's 
history," Romero said. "We recognize this maneuver for what it is: a 
patent attempt to intimidate and impede the work of human rights 
advocates like the ACLU who seek to expose government wrongdoing." 

The U.S. attorney's office had no immediate comment, spokeswoman Yusill 
Scribner said. 

ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro said the most significant thing 
about the case was not the content of the document "but the government's 
unprecedented effort to suppress it." 

The ACLU said the subpoena refers to the Espionage Act, but the civil 
rights group has been told that it is not a target of the investigation. 

In court documents, the ACLU said its lawyers could not find a single 
reported judicial ruling that even mentions, much less enforces, a 
subpoena like the one it received. 

"The grand jury cannot be used, as it is being used here, for the 
purpose of suppressing information," the ACLU said.


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