Some Clues to What “Inaccurate” Information Bush Provided in al-Haramain
As I reported earlier, Obama’s DOJ just confessed that the information Judge Vaughn Walker has received in the al-Haramain suit was "inaccurate."
The Government’s ex parte, in camera classified submissions also address an inaccuracy contained in a prior submission by the Government, the details of which involve classified information that cannot be set forth on the public record.
This post will make some wildarsed guesses about what "inaccurate" information DOJ provided to Vaughn Walker. As I explain below, I think the new declarations admit to new aspects of the warrantless wiretap program in general (most likely the way the government used datamining to select surveillance targets) and/or they admit that warrantless wiretapping was used to get warrants otherwise presented as legal.
How al-Haramain Got Declared a Terrorist Organization
Before I explain why I believe that to be the case (and it is speculation, mind you), let me go back and explain two chronologies: how al-Haramain got designated a terrorist organization, and where the evolving description of the warrantless wiretapping program used in this suit came from.
The Office of Foreign Asset Control declaration included in this brief and this related al-Haramain complaint describes a little bit about how al-Haramain was declared a terrorist organization. (OFAC is the entity that manages financial sanctions, including freezing the assets of terrorist groups. It is a named defendant on this suit.)
On February 18, 2004, citing an evidentiary brief included in the declaration (but never shown to al-Haramain), OFAC preliminarily froze al-Haramain’s assets. That same day, federal agents searched al-Haramain’s Oregon office.
From March through September, an Oregon law firm representing al-Haramain worked with OFAC to respond to the initial freezing of assets. OFAC provided these attorneys with unclassified materials purporting to explain the designation on April 23, 2004, July 23, 2004 and August 20, 2004. The two main pieces of evidence–culled from news articles and internet commentary often not even directly relating to the Oregon al-Haramin–pertained to allegedly inflammatory language included in Korans distributed by al-Haramain and charitable donations al-Haramain had made to Chechnya.
In addition to the unclassified information turned over, OFAC referenced–but never turned over–"classified documents that are not authorized for public disclosure."
The surveillance log at issue in this case was included (accidentally, the government says) in the batch of information handed over on August 20, 2004. Read more →