Islamic charity demands $612K SAN FRANCISCO – Lawyers for a now-defunct Islamic charity Friday asked a judge for more than $600,000 in damages from the federal government after a judge ruled that authorities illegally wiretapped the charity's phone calls. US District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled last month that the Terrorist Surveillance Program authorized by the then president George W. Bush was illegal because it allowed investigators to eavesdrop on electronic communications without warrants. Walker concluded that the Oregon-based arm of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was subject to warrantless wiretaps in 2004. The judge ordered the charity to submit a proposed damage amount. On Friday, Al-Haramain's lawyers argued that the organization's two US lawyers and the charity itself each should receive $204,000. In addition, the lawyers representing Al-Haramain want unspecified attorney fees. Walker will decide the issue later. The Oregon branch of Saudi Arabia-based Al-Haramain, and its lawyers Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, accused the government of monitoring their phone calls throughout 2004. They initially discovered the eavesdropping when Treasury Department officials mistakenly turned over a top secret document that appeared to be a call log.
