Saudi Group Alleges NSA Eavesdropping

[cal04]

Defunct Charity's Suit Details Wiretapping

Documents cited in federal court by a defunct Islamic charity may provide the first detailed evidence of U.S. residents being spied upon by President Bush's secret eavesdropping program, according to the organization's lawsuit and a source familiar with the case. The al Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Saudi organization that once operated in Portland, Ore., filed a description of classified government records in a lawsuit Tuesday and immediately asked a judge for a private review.

According to a source familiar with the case, the records indicate that the National Security Agency intercepted several conversations in March and April of 2004 between al Haramain's director, who was in Saudi Arabia, and two U.S. citizens in Washington who were working as lawyers for the organization.

The government intercepted the conversations without court permission and in violation of the law, al Haramain claims in its lawsuit. It contends that eavesdropping on the conversations bypassed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that requires the government to show probable cause that a U.S. residents is an agent of a terrorist group or foreign government and obtain a warrant from the secret FISA court before monitoring that person's calls.

Experts on FISA, while emphasizing that they are unfamiliar with the specifics of the al Haramain case, said they question whether a FISA judge would agree to allow surveillance of conversations between U.S. lawyers and their client under the general circumstances described in the lawsuit. In October 2001, Bush ordered the NSA to begin monitoring some telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents and contacts abroad if one party was suspected to have links to terrorism. The government has said that FISA did not allow it to move quickly enough to track suspected terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/01/AR2006030102585.html?nav=rss_nation/special

[sendero]

1. Here's another report from CBS

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/01/national/main1357628.shtml