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A Mysterious Plane Crash, A Landmark Supreme Court Case, And The Rise Of State Secrets
Harper Perennial
June 2009
On Sale: June 1, 2009
400 pages ISBN: 0060777036 EAN: 9780060777036 Paperback
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Non-Fiction
On October 6, 1948, a U.S. Air Force B-29 Superfortress
crashed soon after takeoff, killing three civilian engineers
and six crew members. In June 1949, the engineers' widows
filed suit against the government, determined to find out
what exactly had happened to their husbands and why the
three civilians had been on board the airplane in the first
place. But it was the dawn of the Cold War and the Air Force
refused to hand over any documents, claiming they contained
classified information. The legal battle ultimately reached
the Supreme Court, which in 1953 handed down a landmark
decision that would, in later years, enable the government
to conceal gross negligence and misconduct, block
troublesome litigation, and detain criminal suspects without
due-process protections. Claim of Privilege is a mesmerizing true account of a
shameful incident and its lasting impact on our nation—the
gripping story of a courageous fight to right a past wrong
and a powerful indictment of governmental abuse in the name
of national security.
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