more on Could NY Times face a treason trial?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

All your missing is the fog. djf

Begin forwarded message:

From: Matt Blaze <mab () crypto com>
Date: January 24, 2006 3:09:51 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Could NY Times face a treason trial?

I don't understand the argument that the NY Times' reporting about
the NSA domestic wiretap program has harmed national security.
It has been public knowledge for many years that the NSA and other
national security and law enforcement agencies have the technical
capability to intercept telephone traffic under certain conditions,
and FISA explicitly deals with the use of this capability for
intelligence gathering.  Surely it isn't being argued
that terrorists would never have known that telephone wiretaps are
used in counter-terrorism investigations inside and outside the
US had the NY Times not published its articles?  Innumerable books
articles, web sites -- not to mention the FISA act itself and the
transcripts of various trials in which FISA evidence has been
introduced -- have long warned that the government has the technical
and legal ability to wiretap telephone calls in national security
cases.

The news in the NY Times articles was not that wiretaps were
being conducted -- they obviously were -- but that new
(and possibly illegal) internal procedures could authorize them
without judicial review.  How does exposure of these new procedures
harm national security?

What am I missing?

-matt

On Jan 24, 2006, at 14:08, David Farber wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: h_bray () globe com
> Date: January 24, 2006 1:56:23 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Could NY Times face a treason trial?
>
> The noble Harvey Silverglate has suggested in the Boston Phoenix  
> that the
> NY Times could well be put on trial for publishing news that  
> violated US
> national security.  Now comes another suggestion along the same  
> lines from
> the conservative Powerline blog:
>
> http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012924.php
>
> All the Powerline guys are lawyers, so their perspective can be  
> given some
> weight.
>
>
> Hiawatha Bray
> Technology Reporter
> Boston Globe
> 135 Morrissey Blvd.
> P.O. Box 55819
> Boston, MA 02205-5819 USA
> 617-929-3119 voice
> 617-929-3183 fax
> 617-233-9419 cell
> bray () globe com
> watha () monitortan com
> Recent writings: www.boston.com/business/technology/bray
>
>
>
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