abusing the rarely used "state secrets" doctrine

* dr elsewhere:

"Plame’s position and role at the CIA always struck me as non-coincidental when it came to Cheney’s decision to use her to put the scare in her husband. In fact, not only did the OVP spin of a boondoggle always seem just way too lame for any real neurons to entertain, but Wilson’s focus on himself and his own role and importance always felt …a bit like a forced understatement of the whole case.

Put another way, the notion that the OVP and WH would go to such an extreme to get a former diplomat to shut his trap did not pass the logic test, even for the Bush Bozos. The fact that Wilson’s wife actually worked there raised my radar from the get-go that there had to be something about her role, her position, her official activities, that made them extra nervous about her hubby’s sniffin’ around the truth. It was the combo punch; Wilson alone didn’t quite cut it as an annoyance worthy of risking the breaking of a law. Even Plame as generic NOC didn’t get the radar rotating. There has always been this suspicion that she had something to do specifically with their war plans, either Iraq or Iran or both. Seemed to me, anyway.
[]
It is easy to understand why Wilson focused attention on himself instead of his wife’s role; to do otherwise would have played right into the crime. Consider the restraint and remarkable care he has had to muster and maintain on an ongoing basis in order to step cautiously but honestly away from including her specific CIA role in all this. That, my friends, is the stuff true diplomacy is made of."

* glenn:

"A federal judge in Oregon yesterday became the third consecutive judge (after Judge Walker in the Northern District of California and Judge Taylor in the Eastern District of Michigan) to reject the Bush administration's claim that national security concerns (i.e., the "state secrets" doctrine) bar courts from ruling on the legality of the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program.
[]
This decision is remarkable in several respects. And it is the latest example of a clear, extraordinary and extremely encouraging trend where the federal judiciary is finally re-asserting its role in imposing checks and limits on the Bush administration by compelling the administration to abide by the law.
[]
Before the Bush administration began abusing what was the rarely used "state secrets" doctrine, it was virtually automatic for courts to defer to the President's claim that national security precluded judicial examination of certain issues. But yesterday's ruling follows in the footsteps of the decisions by Judge Walker and Judge Taylor, and constitutes a clear sign that the federal courts no longer have sufficient trust in the Bush administration's use of this doctrine and will, consequently, subject it to scrutiny rather than just blindly accepting it as courts have done in the past."