Secrets And Lies

by digby

This is interesting because it has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism and cannot be said to show that civil libertarians want to let terrorists kill us all in our beds:

A federal district judge ruled Monday that the CIA repeatedly misled him in asserting that state secrets were involved in a 15-year-old lawsuit involving allegedly illegal wiretapping.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also ordered former CIA director George Tenet and five other CIA officials to explain their actions or face potential sanctions.

Lamberth also questioned the credibility of current CIA Director Leon Panetta , saying that Panetta’s testimony in the case contained significant discrepancies, and rejected an Obama administration request that the case continue to be kept secret. He released hundreds of previously secret filings.

“The court does not give the government a high degree of deference because of its prior misrepresentations regarding the stated secrets privilege in this case,” Lamberth wrote. “Although this case has been sealed since its inception to protect sensitive information, it is clear . . . that many of the issues are unclassified.”

This case is about a DEA agent spying on a diplomat over an inter-agency turf battle. But the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations claimed the state secrets privilege to keep the case from going forward. That sort of puts the lie to the whole idea that the new blanket state secrets doctine is a national security necessity, doesn’t it?

.