They say the new laws will allow them to do to everyone what they did to Wen Ho Lee -- without any blush about the fact that Lee was innocent that what happened to him was an outrage!
<quote>
New York Times November 24, 2002
Justice Dept. Acts to Use New Power in Terror Inquiries
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
W ASHINGTON, Nov. 23 The Justice Department, moving quickly to use its
expanded powers for spying on possible terrorists, plans to assign
federal lawyers in counterintelligence to terrorism task forces in New
York and Washington to help secure secret warrants against suspects,
officials say.
The deployments, along with other changes under discussion by top
Justice Department officials, are seen as a crucial first step in
breaking down the wall between intelligence gathering and law
enforcement, officials said.
The moves grow from a decision last week by a special appellate panel
of the Foreign Intelligence Court of Review in Washington that
validated the Justice Department's broad surveillance powers under an
antiterrorism law passed last year.
<snip>
Officials say the ability of intelligence agents and prosecutors to
interact more freely could prove critical in avoiding the confusion
and missteps that dogged the high-profile investigations of Wen Ho Lee
and Zacarias Moussaoui.
In the investigation of Dr. Lee, a nuclear physicist who was suspected
of passing secrets to the Chinese, investigators were delayed in
searching Dr. Lee's computer in 1999 because they were uncertain
whether they needed a warrant. While he was under investigation, Dr.
Lee downloaded extensive information onto computer disks, some of
which were never found. He ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of
having improperly downloaded information.
<end quote>
Which was a plea bargain to allow the government to save face! He pled to one count the punishment for which was time already served in return for the government dropping 39 counts each of which carried life sentences and which were the only justification for his having been held without bail in such punitive conditions in the first place! The judge who released him apologized to him for how he'd been treated and said the government's actions made no sense, and that he was saddened that the government would never be required to explain itself. The New York Times released a statement apologizing for having led the journalistic pack of howling dogs for almost a year -- a mealy mouthed apology, it is true, but still unprecedented, I believe -- the first time they issued a correction for an error in judgment.
The entire prosecution was a witchhunt, a perfect example of the abuse of executive power, and of how it can only be hampered by just these restrictions, since here even the most sterling members of judiciary and press rolled over and licked in the absence of a clear prohibition.
And this is our model? And the great thing about this new decision is that it will make more of this possible?
Michael