This will be the lead story in the New York Times on Wednesday (not on its Web site yet):
WASHINGTON -- Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to al-Qaida.
The lawyers said in interviews that they wanted to learn whether the men were monitored by the agency and, if so, whether the government withheld critical information or misled judges and defense lawyers about how and why the men were targeted for investigation.
Story is now
online here
So the illegal wiretaps may unravel terrorism cases, including that against individuals linked to Jose Padilla!!!
Another fine moment for our Keystone Cops Justice Dept. and overzealous NSA
This is remeniscent of how charges were dropped against anti Vietnam War activist John Sinclair of Detroit because the Justice Dept. didnt want to reveal its illegal COINTELPRO efforts!!!
This IS big!!
The expected legal challenges, in cases from Ohio and Virginia to Florida and Oregon, add another dimension to the growing controversy over the agency's domestic surveillance program and could jeopardize some of the Bush administration's most important courtroom victories in terror cases, legal analysts say.
While some civil rights advocates, legal experts and members of Congress have charged that President Bush did not have the authority to order warrantless eavesdropping by the NSA, the White House and the Justice Department continued to defend the legality and propriety of the program on Tuesday.
The first challenge is likely to come in Florida, where lawyers for two men charged with Jose Padilla, who is jailed as an enemy combatant, plan to file a motion as early as next week to determine if the NSA program was used to gain incriminating information on their clients and their suspected ties to al-Qaida.
Defense lawyers in a number of other high-profile terrorism prosecutions, including the so-called Portland Seven and Lackawanna Six cases, said they were also planning to file legal challenges or were reviewing their options.
Looks like the illegal wiretapping was a gift to those defending alleged terrorists. Talk about blowback!
The Times is running this one column on the right, at the top of page one -- lead story.
Of course Bush will blame this entire fiasco on the leak and the damn liberal media
Some Justice Department prosecutors, speaking on condition of anonymity because the NSA program remains classified, said they were concerned that the agency's warrantless wiretaps could create problems for the department in terrorism prosecutions both past and future.
"If I'm a defense attorney," one Justice Department prosecutor said, "the first thing I'm going to say in court is, 'This was an illegal wiretap."'