Obama Administration Maintains Bush Legal Argument for Terrorist Surveillance Secrecy President Obama's most liberal supporters are dismayed and disgusted ... because this administration is invoking the "state secrets" privilege. President Obama's most liberal supporters say they are dismayed and disgusted because this administration is invoking the "state secrets" privilege -- just as former President George W. Bush did -- to shield eavesdropping programs from public exposure. "I wasn't happy when George Bush asserted that he could do these things and I'm not happy that President Obama is now agreeing with George Bush," said Jane Hamsher of Accountability Now. "Other than being flat wrong, the Obama administration's position is seriously disappointing to those Americans who listened to candidate Obama's promises of a new era of government accountability and transparency, said Kevin Bankston, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. EFF sued the government claiming that AT&T and perhaps other telecommunications companies cooperated with it to allow access to people's phone and Internet records -- a so-called dragnet in a search for terrorist communications. Obama criticized the cooperation during the campaign, calling it an abuse of authority and arguing that the Bush administration "undermined the Constitution." Now, the Obama administration is trying to have that same lawsuit dismissed. "For the Obama administration now to try to have our lawsuit dismissed based on the exact same state secrecy arguments is quite a turnaround and very disappointing," Bankston said. http://www.foxnews.com/politic s/first100days/2009/04/13/obam a-administration-upholds-terro rist-surveillance-secrecy-rule s/