War on Terror Watch: Obama's Crew Trying, Failing to Halt Court Cases on Surveillance

Another episode in the Obama tale of "Not What We Say But What We Do" in the War on Terror:

On Friday, a US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the claim of Obama's Justice Department that surveillance without warrants (if you prefer, "domestic spying"), a procedure extended by the Bush Administration, came under the category of "state secrets" and could not be reviewed by the courts.

The case arose when Bush officials accidentally sent classified documents to the lawyers of a charity, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, being investigated by the Treasury Department. The documents covered attorney-client discussions which were monitored by the National Security Agency.

In a second case, on Wednesday Justice Department lawyers vigorously supported Congressional legislation which granted full immunity to US telecommunications companies that participated in the Bush Administration's domestic surveillance programme.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation of San Francisco approached the US District Court to rule that the activity of the telecommunications companies was unconstitutional. Government lawyers responded, "[This] is the law of the land, and as such the Department of Justice defends it in court."

As a Senator of Illinois, Obama said he opposed the immunity clause but supported the bill for warrantless surveillance which included it.

Guantanamo Bay Watch: 17 Chinese Told Go Straight to Limbo

A US Federal Appeals Court has ruled that 17 Uighur Chinese men cannot be released into the United States from their detention at Guantanamo Bay, even though there is no cause to keep them at the facility:

We do know there is insufficient evidence to classify them as enemy combatants — enemies that is of the United States. But that hardly qualifies petitioners [the Uighurs] for admission. Nor does their detention at Guantanamo for many years entitle them to enter the United States.

Ironically, if the 17 had actually done something to threaten America, there might be the prospect of transferring them to the US for criminal proceedings. Because they are in effect innocent, however, there is nowhere to go. They face abuse and torture if they are returned to China, and at this point there is no arrangement with a third country to take them.

But that is now a political problem for President Obama, not a legal problem. The Federal Appeals Court washed its hands of the issue: ""The government has represented that it is continuing diplomatic attempts to find an appropriate country willing to admit petitioners, and we have no reason to doubt it is doing so. Nor do we have the power to require anything more."