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U.S. Government Moves To Dismiss EFF Case

iny0urbrain writes "The New York Times reports that the US government has asked a federal judge to dismiss the Electronic Frontier Foundation's civil liberties lawsuit against the AT&T Corporation because 'of a possibility that military and state secrets would otherwise be disclosed.' The statement concludes by saying: 'Finally, because the United States intends to assert the state secrets privilege and file a dispositive motion to dismiss this action, the United States requests that discovery proceedings be deferred until the government's submission has been considered and heard.' You can view the full text of the government's statement of interest (PDF) on the EFF's website." Sorry, hadn't had my coffee yet this morning, and double posted this one. Sadly, the first one is a mere two stories down. It's also still pouring into the submissions bin, so I'm not the only one not yet awake.

2 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Reminder from history by Beetjebrak · · Score: 1, Troll

    Yes they did. They actively sabotaged all efforts to develop and maintain any sort of democracy. This happend by their fraction systematically undermining almost every vote in the House. It was not uncommon for the nazi party to 'blow up' cabinet after cabinet within a timespan of mere weeks. This made a functional democracy impossible. In the end the president and his chancellor had no other option but to rule by decree. 86 year-old and ailing president Von Hindenburg was put under enormous pressure to appoint Hitler as chancellor instead of Von Papen. This pressure consisted of sabotage by the considerable Nazi party fraction in parliament against any and all policies coming from Von Papen. It is very well known that Hindenburg held Hitler ("the corporal" - Hitler had been a lowly lance corporal during WWI while Hindenburg was a field marshal) in very low esteem. Only through active sabotage could Hitler replace Von Papen as chancellor and in effect seize power by using article 48. When Von Hindenburg finally died of old age (he had been unable to perform his duties for a considerable period before his death), Hitler was able to formally unite the positions of chancellor and president within his own person while there should have been an election instead. So technically Hitler didn't grab power but claiming that power was simply given to him wouldn't do justice to history. Leaving Hitler's later acts out of consideration, this sounds very much like the USA elections of 2000 which Gore should have actually won had all votes been properly counted. Bush is where he is because he exploited the system, Hitler got where he wanted to be by exploiting the system. I don't find it surprising that this comparison comes up so often, it's simply obvious..

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    Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't enough time to make them all yourself.
  2. Sure why not by nurb432 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Just ban anything anti-government since it might lead to a 'state secret issue'.

    We can be as good at it as the russians were, even better.

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    ---- Booth was a patriot ----