Time: Fri Feb 14 15:46:05 1997
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Fri, 14 Feb 1997 12:41:36 -0700 (MST)
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 15:32:07 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: L&J: U.S. Secret Court??
Star chamber, anybody?
/s/ Paul Mitchell
>Delivered-To: liberty-and-justice-outgoing@majordomo.pobox.com
>Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 11:54:40 -0500 (EST)
>To: jad@locust.cic.net
>From: Patricia Neill <pnpj@db1.cc.rochester.edu>
>Subject: L&J: US Secret Court??
>
>Subject: Thought you might find this interesting...
>Date: Wed, 12 Feb 97 21:17:24 -0500
>From: Charles Marcus <csharp@mindspring.com>
>To: "Harvey Wysong" <hwysong@mindspring.com>, "Roger Sayles"
<RSayles@aol.com>
>
>03:54 PM ET 02/11/97
>
>CIA spy suspect challenges secret U.S. court
>
>
> By Jim Wolf
> WASHINGTON (Reuter) - Accused CIA double agent Harold
>Nicholson has asked a judge to exclude all evidence gathered in
>searches authorized by the nation's only secret court.
> In a challenge that could lead to the Supreme Court's first
>review of the secret court's constitutionality, Nicholson argued
>that the clandestine chamber was fundamentally at odds with his
>rights as a U.S. citizen.
> The request to suppress evidence was contained in a filing
>Monday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, where
>Nicholson was scheduled to go on trial April 14 on charges of
>spying for Moscow.
> The former Central Intelligence Agency station chief has
>pleaded not guilty to charges of selling national security
>secrets to Russian agents for 29 months until his Nov. 16
>arrest. Prosecutors have dangled the possibility of a death
>sentence if he is convicted.
> In their filing, Nicholson's court-appointed lawyers argued
>that the secret court is an ``unconstitutional hybrid of
>judicial and executive functions.'' They said it violated his
>Fifth Amendment right to due process of law and his right to
>counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
> At issue is a court set up under the 1978 Foreign
>Intelligence Survellance Act, which operates like no other court
>in the land. Made up of seven U.S. district judges from around
>the country, it hears behind closed doors requests for
>surveillance and search orders from the Justice Department,
>acting on behalf of U.S. spy and counterspy bureaucracies.
> The only lawyers who appear before the court represent the
>government. Targeted people, like Nicholson, may learn they have
>been the subject of its scrutiny only if they are charged, and
>they have no representation in its proceedings.
> In seeking to exclude evidence gathered by searches
>authorized in this way, Nicholson's lawyers said the 1978 law
>violated his due process rights by barring him from ``meaningful
>discovery'' to mount his defense.
> The Nicholson case represents the first time evidence
>gathered under the recently expanded physical search powers in
>FISA was to be introduced in a criminal trial. To get a FISA
>order, the government need only show probable cause that the
>target is either a foreign power itself -- such as an embassy or
>other diplomatic presence -- or an ``agent of a foreign power,''
>a standard far lower than in a normal criminal probe.
> Spearheading the constitutional challenge is Jonathan
>Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who
>observed the secret court as an employee of the ultra-secretive
>National Security Agency in the mid-1980s.
> Turley, who is coordinating his work with civil rights
>groups, is preparing an identical challenge to the court in the
>case of Earl Pitts, the former FBI agent arrested Dec. 18 on
>charges of selling secrets to Russia.
>
>
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========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness
email: [address in tool bar] : Eudora Pro 3.0 on Intel 80586 CPU
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone
Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this
========================================================================
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