false 3249604 3 <b>In the tradition of <i>A Civil Action</i> and <i>Gideon's Trumpet</i>, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barry Siegel unfolds the shocking true story behind the Supreme Court case that forever changed the balance of power in America.</b> On October 6, 1948, a trio of civilian engineers joined a U.S. Air Force crew on a B-29 Superfortress, whose mission was to test secret navigational equipment. Shortly after takeoff the plane crashed, killing all three engineers and six others. In June 1949, the widows of the engineers filed suit against the government. What had happened to their men? they asked. Why had these civilians been aboard an Air Force plane in the first place? But the Air Force, at the dawn of the Cold War, refused to hand over the accident reports and witness statements, claiming the documents contained classified information that would threaten national security. The case made its way up to the Supreme Court, which in 1953 sided with the Air Force in <i>United States v. Reynolds</i>. This landmark decision formally recognized the "state secrets" privilege, a legal precedent that has since been used to conceal conduct, withhold documents, block troublesome litigation, and, most recently, detain terror suspects without due-process protections. Even with the case closed, the families of those who died in the crash never stopped wondering what had happened in that B-29. They finally had their answer a half century later: In 2000 they learned that the government was now making available the top-secret information the families had sought long ago, in vain. The documents, it turned out, contained no national security secrets but rather a shocking chronicle of negligence. Equal parts history, legal drama, and exposé, <i>Claim of Privilege</i> tells the story of this shameful incident, its impact on our nation, and a courageous fight to right a wrong from the past. Placing the story within the context of the time, Siegel draws clear connections between the apocalyptic fears of the early Cold War years and post-9/11 America&#8212;and shows the dangerous consequences of this historic cover-up: the violation of civil liberties and the abuse of constitutional protections. By evoking the past, <i>Claim of Privilege</i> illuminates the present. Here is a mesmerizing narrative that indicts what our government is willing to do in the name of national security. 3284635 1 6 2008 Claim of Privilege: A Mysterious Plane Crash, a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise of State Secrets total:13|5:5|4:3|3:5|2:0|1:0| 13 52 33 5 3 0 false false Tue Dec 30 08:32:33 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 22 01:22:17 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 08:32:33 -0800 2008
The book is a history of the relevant case US v. Reynolds, but it is only a history of this case. The author goes into great detail about not only the details of the cas...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 22:45:20 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 24 11:27:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 21:24:19 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 21:26:04 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jan 07 14:15:38 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 14:09:11 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sun Aug 24 10:58:59 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 24 11:03:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Oct 09 22:38:31 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 22:38:31 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Sep 05 11:45:04 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 11:45:04 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Aug 03 21:27:15 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 21:27:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 30 23:51:09 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 23:51:09 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 28 20:13:29 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 20:13:29 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jun 27 12:44:23 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 12:44:23 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jun 24 09:40:12 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 09:40:12 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jun 16 22:05:43 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 22:05:43 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat May 09 19:36:20 -0700 2009 Sat May 02 15:38:44 -0700 2009 Sat May 09 19:36:20 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jan 21 08:17:23 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 08:17:46 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Dec 14 07:07:18 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 07:07:23 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Fri Dec 12 20:01:49 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 12 20:30:53 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Sat Nov 22 20:14:32 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 20:14:34 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Nov 06 19:18:58 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 03 18:27:15 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Fri Oct 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 23 21:15:58 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 31 17:33:09 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=3249604