Security issues require oversight

Re “Another court backs Bush on secrets,” Nov. 17

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that an Islamic charity that is suing the government cannot refer to a classified document that shows it was a target of illegal warrantless surveillance, even though the material was accidentally released by the Treasury Department.

This decision appears to give the executive the power to commit any crime, and prevent any judicial review of it, simply by unilaterally declaring it to be related to national security.

What if the executive branch were planning to assassinate the chief justice or to simulate a terrorist act to allow it to declare martial law and suspend civil rights?

This ruling means that the evidence of the plot could never be introduced in court if the executive merely classified it.

This decision strikes at the roots of our three-branch system and leaves the door open to dictatorship. Yet it is unlikely that Bush’s tame Supreme Court would overturn it.

There must be judicial oversight of executive declarations of national security secrecy status. It is within the power of Congress to require it.

Harvey S. Frey

Santa Monica