The U.S. government will use the state secrets privilege to interrupt a class-action lawsuit brought against AT&T by the Electronic Frontier Foundation alleging that the company illegally cooperated with the National Security Agency in implementing President George W. Bush’s terrorist surveillance program.

The lawsuit, filed January 31, sought an injunction against AT&T to prevent it from assisting the government in conducting surveillance on American citizens without a warrant.

Earlier this month, a retired AT&T technician told of how he installed equipment apparently related to the surveillance.

The government filed a statement of interest (PDF) Friday stating that it will assert the state secrets privilege in the case.

AT&T, which refuses to comment on the case, also filed two motions to dismiss the case Friday.

The government’s filing said the authorities “cannot disclose any national security information that may be at issue in this case.” The document went on to say that the filing should not be construed as either a confirmation or a denial of any of the claims made by the civil liberties group about government surveillance activities.

Elsewhere in the document, however, the government said President Bush had explained that after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he authorized the security agency to intercept communications into and out of the United States by people linked to Al Qaeda and related organizations. The agency is ordinarily prohibited from intercepting the telephone and digital communications of American citizens without a warrant from a special intelligence court.

Responding to the filing, Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, “We think the government’s right to conduct this program should be considered separately from the issue of whether a telecommunications firm has the right to break the law.” — New York Times

Well, that’s about it for this case. Unlike any other president in history, the Bush administration uses the state secrets privilege regularly, and appears to have a comprehensive policy for using it. It’s yet more of the culture of secrecy which is rotting the federal government from within.

Everyone knows that there are secrets a government must keep. But most of the secrets this government keeps are unclassified or would cause no harm to national security whatsoever; only harm to Bush’s image. Of course, he’s doing quite well at harming his image already.

I guess we’re just going to have to get used to the government listening to all our phone calls. After all, it’s to keep us safe. And what’s more important than being safe?

If you really think there’s nothing more important than being safe, then go away from us in peace, you slave. May your chains set lightly on you, and may posterity forget that you were ever our countrymen.