Judge defers decision on US wiretap suit

DETROIT - A federal judge today deferred making an immediate decision on a request that the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping programme be halted as a violation of law.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the lawsuit in January, asked US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor to stop the White House from intercepting international phone calls and emails without a warrant in its fight against terrorism, saying it violates Americans' free speech and privacy rights.

But the government responded that the programme is key to helping protect US security.

Taylor deferred any ruling. Another hearing is scheduled for July 10.

"Our clients have suffered concrete harm," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, told the court, saying lawyers now have to travel overseas to gather information they would have previously received on the phone and journalists are beginning to lose sources.

"The framers (of the US Constitution) never intended to give the president the power to ignore the laws of Congress even during wartime and emergencies," she said.

The case was filed in Detroit because the area is home to one of the largest Arab populations outside the Middle East.

Nazih Hassan, a Lebanese-American, and a member of the ACLU, said the wiretapping had instilled fear in the Arab community.

"There is such a blurry line between talking about the things you care about such as the war in Iraq or the situation in Lebanon and "supporting terrorism" that I and many of my friends have just stopped talking on the phone," he said outside the court.

The Justice Department, which represents the National Security Agency, argued that the programme is legal and a key weapon in the administration's war on terror.

Anthony Coppolino, the lead attorney for the case, told the court the NSA was only intercepting calls to detect and prevent another terrorist attack.

"The government is quite confident that the President's actions are directly and narrowly focused on al Qaeda and terrorist threats," he said.

The government in May asked federal judges in Detroit and New York to throw out challenges to the eavesdropping, invoking a doctrine known as the "state secrets privilege" it has used to head off other court action on its spy programmes.

"We are confident that information related to this case must not be disclosed," Coppolino said in court.

The ACLU's suit contends that US officials have already disclosed enough for judges to rule that the recent wiretapping skirted the requirements of a 1978 surveillance law.

"We don't believe we need any more facts to prove the president has violated the law," Beeson told reporters after the hearing.

President George W Bush in December said he authorised the eavesdropping without a court order shortly after the September 11 attacks, to track suspected communication from al Qaeda operatives.

US officials have since declined to provide details on how widely the NSA wiretaps have been used or what communications have been intercepted.

Several individuals and groups -- including the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Asian American Legal Defence and members of Congress -- have filed briefs on the case.

A fuller, classified version of the government's argument for dismissal is being held in a secure location in Washington awaiting review by the courts, the Justice Department said last month.

- REUTERS