State Secrets Defense in Oregon

Several of those cases occurred in Oregon. One was related to illegal spying on attorneys for the Ashland defendant and other misconduct in a “financial support for terrorism” case.

Aerial photo of Oregon Capitol by Tim King Salem-News.com

(PORTLAND, OR) - The Big O recently ran a Mcclatchy report, “Obama still secretive despite transparency vow” http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/10/185340/report-obama-still-secretive-despite.html that mentions his use of “state secrets” to quash court cases and other proceedings that would embarrass his or previous regimes.

It did not note that several of those cases occurred in Oregon. One was related to illegal spying on attorneys for the Ashland defendant and other misconduct in a “financial support for terrorism” case.

The other evidently stopped a professional misconduct investigation by the Oregon State Bar into the role played by the late Portland attorney Scott Caplan in enabling a fake Oregon company, “Bayard Foreign Marketing” to purchase a plane used by the CIA to transport kidnapped suspects to torture centers.

The company president, “ Leonard Thomas Bayard,” was also a fake person. Nevertheless, Caplan represented him before the Secretary of State and other government agencies. In 2007, Mary Cooper, a disciplinary counsel for the Oregon Bar, dismissed a complaint against Caplan because “the law prevents him from disclosing more about his client’s identity..”

Ms Cooper did not respond when asked to cite the law she relied on to dismiss the case.

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Michael Munk tries to glean important but overlooked items from the world media on the issues of the day and posts them on an irregular schedule. Although items can overlap, he also maintains separate lists for activists in Portland, Oregon and the Northwest, and special lists for: Labor, Latin America, Israel, Torture Taxis, Korea, and the Czech Republic.

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