Some Secret Documents in Terror Case Can Be Unsealed

The Justice Department said today that much of the now-secret court record in the case against Zacarias Moussaoui could be made public but urged the trial judge to keep a handful of documents under seal because they “disclose confidential, sensitive details about the foreign relations of the United States.” The department’s statement came in response to a request by several major news organizations for access to the court record in the case against Mr. Moussaoui, the only person charged in an American court with conspiring in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Much of the court record in the case has been placed under seal by Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., out of concern, she said, that it might divulge national security secrets. But in court papers earlier this month, the news organizations said that the secrecy had gone too far, and that Judge Brinkema’s decision to place dozens of defense and prosecution documents under seal over the last several months without advance notice to the public was a violation of the First Amendment. Full Story