On Wednesday a federal judge ruled that the government illegally wiretapped the phones of the Saudi-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, intercepting conversations between foundation officials and American lawyers Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor. Judge Vaughn R. Walker, chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, found that the foundation officials and lawyers “were subjected to warrantless electronic surveillance,” and rejected the government’s claims that the lawsuit should be dismissed because of the risk of disclosing state secrets. The ruling in this case, which is the active case challenging the now defunct wiretapping program, also warned against limitless government assertion of the state secrets privilege.
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