Although I know you have little regard for public radio, if you can stand to listen to it, try going to the This American Life website and listen to last week's program, "Secret Government". It'll take an hour. There is no transcript posted online.

There are three essays. The first is on the Padilla case. The second follows the people who were deported after 9/11. The third (and most fascinating to me, but I like lawyer stuff) follows the history of a dispute between a secret US court and AG Ashcroft's Justice Department, during which the court in question, all conservative justices, refused to grant certain of Justice's wiretap requests because they went too far. Justice mounted an appeal in protest, the first of its kind, ever, and all secret, except that the ACLU was invited by the appeals court to file a brief in opposition to Justice's appeal.

How do we know what's really happening if so much of it never sees the light of day?

Regards--
Mary Anne