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``WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Department of Justice invoked the state secrets privilege today in the case Shubert, et al. v. Barack Obama, et al.
Below is a statement by Attorney General Eric Holder:
"The Department of Justice asserted the state secrets privilege in a case today to protect against a disclosure of highly sensitive, classified information that would irrevocably harm the national security of this country. I authorized this significant step following a careful and thorough review process, and I did so only because I believe there is no way for this case to move forward without jeopardizing ongoing intelligence activities that we rely upon to protect the safety of the American people.
"Last month, I outlined new policies and procedures containing a system of internal and external checks and balances that the Department will follow each time it invokes the state secrets privilege in litigation. We designed those procedures to provide greater accountability for the use of the privilege and to ensure that the Department invokes the privilege only to the extent that it is absolutely necessary to protect national security. The procedures require a thorough, multi-stage review and rely upon robust judicial and congressional oversight.
"The present case was reviewed under this new process. The Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the National Security Agency certified to the Department that disclosing information at issue in the case would jeopardize national security and provided classified information to support that conclusion. A review committee of senior Department officials, the Associate Attorney General, and the Deputy Attorney General all reviewed that information. Based on the recommendations from this review process, as well as my own personal review of the information provided, I concluded that we had no alternative but to assert the privilege to prevent the exposure of intelligence sources and methods...''
http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Statement+of+Attorney +General+Eric+Holder+on+Assertion+of+the+State+Secrets+Privilege+in +Shubert+v.+Obama/5062136.html
In another news item I found an announcement of a bill in the Senate to make these policies law and retroactive. The bill is designed to prevent these cases from going to the Supreme Court, where they could be tossed out.