A huge win for the Administration in the 9th Circus Circuit Court:

In this  just released this morning, three Judges of the Ninth Circuit, including one of the most liberal anti-government judges in the Country, Harry Pregerson, sided with the Administration on its asserting of the “State Secrets” privilege in a lawsuit brought by Islamic groups and others against both the government. and the telecommunication companies that helped put in place the terrorist surveillance program that involved the use of warrantless wiretaps.

…

In this case the Court held that the government had properly invoked the State Secrets privilege with respect to document(s) and information which the plaintiffs would need to proceed with their suit – such as confirmation that the plaintiffs had been the target of the Terrorist Surveillance Program and the details of how the program operated.   

 Money quote from p. 22 of the pdf:

“Having reviewed it in camera, we conclude that the Sealed Document is protected by the state secrets privilege, along with the information as to whether the government surveilled Al-Haramain. We take very seriously our obligation to review the documents with a very careful, indeed a skeptical, and not to accept at face value the government’s claim or justification of privilege. Simply saying “military secret,” “national security” or “terrorist threat” or invoking an ethereal fear that disclosure will threaten our nation is insufficient to support the privilege. Sufficient detail must be—and has been—provided for us to make a meaningful examination. The process of in camera review ineluctably places the court in a role that runs contrary to our fundamental principle of a transparent judicial system. It also places on the court a special burden to assure itself that an appropriate balance is struck between protecting national security matters and preserving an open court system. That said, we acknowledge the need to defer to the Executive on matters of foreign policy and national security and surely cannot legitimately find ourselves second guessing the Executive in this arena.

Hard to find a place in there anywhere for a “Bush/Cheney are worse than Hitler” jibe. 

As Patterico notes, all three judges are Clinton or Carter appointees, so the left will have to blame their own this time

Jay At Stop the ACLU shares my amazement:

Wonders never cease! A sliver of sanity actually coming from the infamously liberal leaning 9th Circuit Court in favor of the Bush administration!

Captain Ed notes:

The most liberal appellate court in the federal judiciary handed the Bush administration a big victory regarding its terrrorist-surveillance program (TSP) at the NSA. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the administration correctly asserted its ability to protect state secrets in pursuing leads on terrorists.

And I don’t understand why that is a hard concept to grasp.  Why would anyone want to publish how we find the bad guys and make it harder to catch them?

Redstate remembers the NY Times role in the release of secrets:

When the New York Times disclosed a top-secret program of surveilance of inteernational phone calls with  suspected terrorists, the Bush Administration faced a critical choice: defend the program in public - including correcting misimpressions left by press reports - or try to preserve such secrecy as had not been shattered by the Tiimes. Both choices had substantial downsides, but today the Ninth Circuit held (in a decision that is otherwise somewhat of a split decision* in a challenge brought to the program by “Al-Haramain Islamiic Foundation,  a designated terrorist organization, and two of its attorneys”) that the Bush Administration waived its legal defense that a full judicial review of the program would involve disclosure of state secrets because the Administration responded to the Times in a way that confirmed the program’s existence and some facts aboout it:

…as well as a contrary ruling which will propel this to the SCOTUS, and its wider reaching implications:

I should note, first of all, that the Sixth Circuit has reached a contrary conclusion, so expect the Supreme Court to weigh in on this sooner rather than later. The net result of this line of reasoning is that the media can combine with the courts to create a no-win situation: the media discloses a secret program and portrays it in an unfavorable light that suggests it’s illegal; the White House can’t stay silent without taking a public beating; and then the courts say that lawsuits can not only be filed because the White House fought back, but they also allow the development of a one-sided and incomplete factual record based on media misreporting.

None of which helps fight the bad guys.

And, The Jawa Report reminds us who the plaintiffs real are:

The suit was brought by a Muslim “charity”, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, which was shut down by the Treasury Department’s OFAC division, after it was designated a Foreign Terrorist Entity. The “charity” was really an al Qaeda money-laundering scheme.

All links via Memeorandum

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Stop the ACLU, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Stix Blog, The Populist, , The Pet Haven Blog, The Amboy Times, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, A Blog For All, 123beta, guerrilla radio, Grizzly Groundswell, Big Dog’s Weblog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao’s Blog, Conservative Cat, Nuke’s, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, CORSARI D’ITALIA, High Desert Wanderer, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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