Domestic wiretaps

You'd better be careful if your lawyer also represents clients in Afghanistan, Cuba or Guantanamo. This law firm did, and it looks like the government was listening to everything that came in or out of their phone lines or their computer:

MONTPELIER — A law firm that represents clients at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan is warning its Vermont clients that it believes the federal government has been monitoring its phones and computer system.

In a letter sent to clients of the St. Johnsbury firm of Gensburg, Atwell & Broderick, the three attorneys said they can’t guarantee their communications were confidential.

“Although our investigation is not complete, we are quite confident that it is the United States government that has been doing the phone tapping and computer hacking,” said the letter, dated Oct. 2.

... A Verizon Vermont technician who investigated problems with Gensburg’s phone last month found crossed lines, but didn’t explain what caused the problem, Sleigh said. A forensic examination of Gensburg’s computer found an application that disabled all security software and would have given someone access to all information on the computer, Sleigh said.

“We’ve been told by our expert that nothing on their machines are confidential,” Sleigh said. “We are continuing to see who, what, when and how this infection was installed on my client’s computer.”

... “Given the phone situation, a number of another anomalies we’ve observed over time... we think we have legitimate cause for concern,” Sleigh said.

This kind of warrantless snooping is, of course, completely legal under the current law the idiots in Congress adopted back in August. Among the many things that occur to me in relation to this is the high probability this threat will force law firms to stop defending clients in places like Afghanistan and Cuba because it also puts the privacy of their communications with domestic clients at risk. Further, domestic clients who fear government snooping might well shop around to avoid law firms that represent people in troubled parts of the world. It seems to me that this alone is a pretty big deal that should be worrying almost any lawyer in the country.