SAN FRANCISCO, March 31 (UPI) -- The George W. Bush administration's warrantless wiretap of calls made by a defunct Islamic charity were illegal, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled.
Besides granting a summary judgment to the former Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation of Ashland, Ore., U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said Wednesday the group could file a financial compensation request, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The U.S. Treasury Department designated the foundation, the U.S. branch of an Islamic charity, as a terrorist organization in 2004. The calls between two of the foundation's U.S. lawyers and an Al-Haramain official in Saudi Arabia were wiretapped as part of Bush's anti-terrorist program.
The group claimed in court U.S. officials violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by listening in on the calls without obtaining a warrant. The U.S. Justice Department argued for the case's dismissal for national security reasons.
Walker earlier ruled procedures established under the surveillance law supersede the national security argument.
In his ruling Wednesday, Walker said the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation offered enough evidence to demonstrate the wiretapping apparently happened, and the government didn't present evidence to contest claims the eavesdropping was done without a warrant, the Chronicle said.
The government "must be deemed to have admitted that no warrant existed," Walker said.
