PATRIOT Act Author Slithers Back Into Public Eye
The former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy helped write a memorandum of law calling for dismissal of Espionage Act charges against two pro-Israel lobbyists, arguing that, in receiving leaked classified information and relaying it to others, they were doing what reporters, think-tank experts and congressional staffers "do perhaps hundreds of times every day."
Viet D. Dinh, who helped draft the USA Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has joined with lawyers defending Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who last year became the first non-U.S. government employees to be indicted for allegedly violating provisions of the Espionage Act.
"Never has a lobbyist, reporter, or any other non-government employee been charged . . . for receiving oral information the government alleges to be national defense material as part of that person's normal First Amendment protected activities," the defense memorandum states.
This asshole is really pushing it. The Espionage Act expressly allows for charging someone with disclosure of classified information with or without anything committed to paper.
The defense memorandum was filed under seal in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Jan. 19 and, according to Rosen's attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, was unsealed last Thursday at the request of the defense...
Lowell said that his client and Weissman "have been indicted as felons for doing far less than for what reporters have been awarded Pulitzer Prizes." In the memorandum, reference is made to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest's articles on CIA secret prisons for alleged terrorists, for which a leak investigation is underway. FBI agents are also investigating the leak to the New York Times about the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program.
I don't object to a lawyer (Lowell) doing anything in his power to get his client off, but implicitly comparing the AIPAC case to the Pulitzer-winning Pentagon Papers case or Iran-Contra, is a stretch.
Interesting timing. The AIPAC case allegedly involved information about the capabilities and intentions of Iran.
I bet that the administration wishes it still had such a convenient portal available in the current propaganda effort.
posted by Effwit at 11:39 AM
10 Comments:
AIPAC seems to have a lengthy history of ties to the neo-con usual suspects. Previous leaks of classified information led to the revoked security clearances of a few of them, Douglas Feith included.
So how exactly do the neo-cons, PNAC and the Israelis all tie together? There seem to be an awful lot of linkages there.
Now here's what I mean by ethnic shortstops used to devour the living constitution.
All these 'recent' Americans cynically recruited...
(I know this for a fact- for the most part at least - since I still get invited to BBQs with a few of the nasties and/or their nearest cronies or loved ones and thus hear the snyde realpolitik remarks)
...by the rascist Bushies...
(OK, OK, Cheneyites to be correct)
...are per qualification just a bit too eager to please The Man so as to make their own shortcut mark and set establishment roots in tough ass America.
Condy, Alito, Sanchez, Gonzales, Powell, Viet...the list goes on...The Cheneyites have flushed out a useful cadre of ethnic shortstops to front and be fall guys for their carniverous policies.
The Nazis also knew how to flush out susceptible Jews to administer aspects of the horrenous destruction of other Jews. That's a rather more dramatic example to be sure but it's the same mean but effective trick used by this class and race warring cabal in and behind the present Admin..
These particular shortstops simply haven't found values worth more than the immediate pursuit of power and recognition to temper their eagerness to ingratiatingly serve The Man in a society where white is still where it's at.
They make for useful idiots - and frontrow suspects at a Nuremburg nouveaux war crimes trial. But those be but my dreams talkin' and nuthin I'd bet on taking place if ever inclined to gambling ways.
DrewL:
If I was a U. of Chicago trained political scientist I could probably answer your question.
;-)
Meatball One:
Most liberals think they are being cynical if they merely postulate the thesis that the Rethugs are practicing political tokenism.
I fear that the truth is much closer to what you are saying.
The powerful are exploiting the natural desire of people to get ahead, even at the expense of their own values.
Your brevity is poetry.
My sinuous ranting is only therapeutic - for me.
DrewL...all NeoCon roads lead to Sickago (it's actually one sweet town)
Meatball One:
In the landscape of spring,
there is no better or worse.
The flowering branches bloom naturally,
some long,
some short.
Meatball One-
I love Chicago! Though I am a Northwestern man rather than a Chicago man. UoC trained poly-scientists seem to veer off into NeverNeverLand, a la Perle and Wolfowitz.
EFFWIT:
Nice. Thanks. And a Happy Valentine's Day to you too!
And here's mine for you:
I'm but a nuclear armed submarine
always in motion
and always exactly where I should be
DrewL:
I was but a slivers shadow from going to Northwestern moiself. An issue of potential stalking was what clinched it otherwise.
Northwestern...good man! I used to stalk about near Belden Ave...or was it street? It was a long time ago.
Meatball One:
and always exactly where I should be
Or with some underworld spy,
or the wife of a close friend.
;-)
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