Mystery document headed to Seattle

original
By Tim Fought /The Associated Press /PORTLAND —


A secret document in an Oregon lawsuit challenging President Bush's domestic wiretapping program will be held in a secure facility in Seattle while the judge and lawyers try to figure out how to keep it under wraps in Portland.

U.S. District Judge Garr King decided this week that the document couldn't be held securely in a federal courthouse in Portland, and shouldn't be held at the local office of the FBI, a defendant in the case.

In a telephone conference that offered few clues about the document, King said it would go to a secure facility at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, but he hoped it eventually could be edited and held in Oregon as the suit progresses.

A government lawyer said, however, the document would be so black with redactions that it couldn't be understood.

A transcript of the telephone conference was made available to The Associated Press by Steven Goldberg, a civil-rights attorney who filed the lawsuit last February.

The lawsuit alleges that the National Security Agency illegally wiretapped electronic communications between a local chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, both attorneys in Washington, D.C.

It contends the NSA did not follow procedures required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and failed to obtain a court order authorizing electronic surveillance of the charity and its attorneys. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have said they can't spell out the facts that support their suit because those details are classified.

The conference over the document arose because the FBI office is the only place in Portland that has a facility that meets specifications for what the government calls "sensitive compartmented information," according to the telephone conference transcript.

Such secure rooms, called SCIFs, often are used in trials dealing with classified information. They are overseen by court security officers who monitor lawyers reviewing documents. Lawyers generally aren't allowed to copy anything or take notes out.

Goldberg said it would be inappropriate for the FBI to have custody because "we're dealing with a document that may involve criminal behavior by that defendant."

Anthony Coppolino of the Justice Department said the document wouldn't be altered if the FBI had it and said King could have it in a closed envelope, perhaps signing the seal to guard against unauthorized opening. The judge, however, said the FBI wouldn't be a suitable custodian.

"I'm not indicating there would be any problem with them, but they are a defendant so I don't think it's appropriate that they have custody of it," King said.

But the judge also decided against the idea of constructing a special secure facility for the case after Coppolino said "these facilities cost thousands, if not millions, and take months and months to create."

King expressed hope that he and others could consult with security experts and "the originator" of the document "to see if something less secure would be satisfactory."

Coppolino told King that editing the document wouldn't be possible "without redactions of the document to the point where the content wouldn't be — would not be understandable."

In a separate development, The Oregonian reported Thursday that it had filed suit last week seeking documents in the case.

"If the government is committing crimes against its citizens, the public is entitled to know the nature of the crimes," said the newspaper's attorney, Charles Hinkle.