Posted by Jeff from bgp01107368bgs.wbrmfd01.mi.comcast.net (68.42.59.180) on Tuesday, April 09, 2002 at 11:16PM :
... The lawyer and interpreter for a Muslim cleric were indicted today in New York.
Read this: something that I found... I am only pasting the really good tidbits. You can figure my point after reading this.
"Lawyers specializing in defense work said they believed it was the first time one of their colleagues had been indicted in the United States on charges related to terrorism."
""I think this will hopefully become a touchstone case ... something that points out the limits the government can go to in prosecuting people they don't like," she said as she left the courthouse. "They have now arrested the lawyer and the interpreter. ... It goes too far and we all have a sense of that."
"Bill Goodman, director of legal services at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the charges violated attorney-client privilege and the constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association.
At a news conference in New York, Ashcroft said he had directed the Bureau of Prisons to monitor Abdel-Rahman's future attorney-client communications. He said it was the first time since the enactment of the USA Patriot Act that he had exercised this authority.
The act, signed into law by President Bush (news - web sites) on Oct. 26, broadened the government's power to listen to private conversations and read e-mail."
So, not only can they sue your lawyer and interpreter (what kind of lawyer would want to defend you... an "Assyrian" or "Chaldean" TERRORIST if they would go to jail for it?? What kind of a translator would even get near you if s/he could go to jail for translating your words)... and now they can read your e-mails AND listen in on your private conversations!
This whole situation is so out of control, all I can do is chuckle nervously.
So much for the ACLU.
-- Jeff
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