US demands ACLU return leaked memo

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are demanding that the American Civil Liberties Union turn over all copies of a secret document it has obtained, in what is apparently the first time a criminal grand jury subpoena has been used in an attempt to seize leaked material, the ACLU and a number of legal specialists said yesterday.

Prosecutors obtained the subpoena on Nov. 20, saying their demand was part of an investigation into an alleged violation of the Espionage Act of 1917.

The ACLU said that the 3 1/2-page document contained no information that should be classified, and that the memo is only "mildly embarrassing" to the government.

It declined to go into specifics about the document.

Some legal scholars said the case bears similarities to events in the "Pentagon Papers" case of more than three decades ago.

The subpoena, issued in the Southern District of New York, provided the latest example of the Justice Department's aggressive use of the anti-spying law, a broadly worded and little-used statute that has become the bedrock in a series of leak-related investigations by the Bush administration.

In a motion filed in federal court, the ACLU called the subpoena an "unprecedented abuse" of the government's grand-jury powers. The organization said that this action violates the First Amendment.

The civil liberties group, which has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's war on terrorism and its detainee policies, said it is prohibited from disclosing the contents of the document.