A Right to Privately Fund Killing (Updated)

There are several lawsuits against the Bush administration's warrant less wiretapping program, but this one is reported to be the front runner in order to achieve a shut down of the program.

Legal experts say that of the dozens of lawsuits alleging civil rights violations by the secret surveillance program, the one involving the Oregon charity that al-Buthi controlled has the best shot of succeeding. That's because al-Buthi and his lawyers claim to have proof their communications were monitored: a top secret NSA call log accidentally turned over to the defense team by government officials.

They probably do have proof because in all likelihood they were tapped.

Soliman al-Buthi is a prominent religious leader in Saudi Arabia, a father of three and a ranking government official. He's also a terrorist, according to the United States and United Nations.

To me this sounds exactly what I would expect the government to looking into. Although if he is a suspect, why is there a problem in getting a warrant?

If the charges against Soliman al-Buti are true, then he has been raising charity money all around the world and directing a portion of it to terrorist organizations. With this lawsuit he essentially demanding we protect his rights to plot to kill us. Of course he is doing this through proxies because...

Al-Buthi was not expected to attend the hearing at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because he remains a fugitive in this country. He's also listed on an Interpol "no fly" list and is subject to arrest and deportation to the United States if he steps outside Saudi Arabia, which does not extradite its citizens.

So a man, that is a wanted fugitive, is looking out for our right to privacy, and his right to help kill us.

Update:

Crossroads Arbia is also commenting on this

UPDATE: March 2, 2006The Washington Post has further
details of this story.]
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Civil rights attorneys have sued the National Security Agency, claiming it illegally wiretapped conversations between the leaders of an Islamic charity that had been accused of aiding Muslim militants and two of its lawyers.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland asks that electronic surveillance by the NSA be shut down, arguing the agency illegally wiretapped electronic communications between a local chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, both attorneys in Washington, D.C.

If these allegation are true about both calls orginating in the US then it should not have fallen into the warrantless wiretap as far as I understand. But as one reads on in the story it is revealed that it wasn't commincation between the local chapter and the lawyers but between
the director in Saudi Arabia and the Lawyers.

According to a source familiar with the case, the records indicate that the National Security Agency intercepted several conversations in March and April 2004 between al-Haramain's director, who was in Saudi Arabia, and two U.S. citizens in Washington who were working as lawyers for the organization.

Now the lawyers are US citizens and should be granted a certain level of privacy if they are talking about the legal issues (No proof that they weren't, that I know of).