“A federal judge on Tuesday [December 21, 2010] ordered the U.S. government to pay more than $2.5 million in attorney fees and damages after he concluded investigators wiretapped the phones of a suspected terrorist organization without a warrant. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said the attorneys for the Ashland, Ore., chapter of the now-defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation should receive $2.5 million for waging its nearly five-year legal challenge to the Bush administration’s so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program. Walker also awarded $20,400 each to Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor, two of the foundation’s Washington D.C.-based lawyers. They had their phone conversations with Al-Haramain principals monitored, the judge said.”
– Paul Elias, “Judge Orders Feds to Pay $2.5M in Wiretapping Case,” Associated Press, Dec. 21, 2010