Feds, AT&T: Eavesdropping trial would reveal state secrets

FEDS, AT&T: EAVESDROPPING TRIAL WOULD REVEAL STATE SECRETS
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
The federal government is urging an appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, warning that disclosure of such activities could compromise national security. "The suit's very subject matter -- including the relationship, if any, between AT&T and the government in connection with the secret intelligence activities alleged by plaintiffs -- is a state secret," the Justice Department argued in court papers. The documents were filed late Friday and released Monday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which brought the suit. It accuses AT&T Inc. of illegally making communications on its networks available to the National Security Agency without warrants, and challenges Bush's assertion that he could use his wartime powers to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/16892490.htm

ARE WE SAFER
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Tom Blanton, National Security Archive]
Information belongs to the American people, despite our government's insistence that it does not. In this age of terrorism, knee-jerk secrecy aims to protect us from the evils of the world. In practice, though, it might do just the opposite. We face a choice today. Many officials, especially in Washington, have the retro Cold War mind-set, urging us to adopt the methods and the secrecy of our enemies. In the Internet age, we should know better. Computer security experts tell us that if the software bug is secret, only the vendor and the hacker know, and the rest of us can neither protect our own computers nor contribute to a solution. We can either hide our vulnerabilities, or we can expose and fix them. We will never be safer in the dark.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070313/oplede13.art.htm