''At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison.''
This is how Our Dear Leader President Bush asks for legislation these days. He tells us that Congress must bow to his will or we all will die.
In this public statement, Bush was urging Congress to pass his version of the new FISA law, a federal statute that regulates how, among other things, U.S. intelligence is allowed to eavesdrop on phone calls. Both houses of Congress have more or less agreed to his proposal, with one exception. Bush wants the law to include a clause granting retrograde immunity to telecom companies that illegally supplied he government with phone records over the last six years. The Senate has agreed to this provision, but the House is balking. Bush has threatened to veto any bill that does not include retrograde immunity.
I do not pretend to be an expert on all aspects of this law, but here is the issue as I understand it. Since the September 11th attacks, the Bush administration has repeatedly asked telephone companies for their phone records during its anti-terrorist investigations. The telephone companies have been freely supplying this information, and allowing the Bush people to listen in on phone calls without search warrants. Under normal circumstances, telecom companies cannot supply such information, even if they want to, without a warrant. Telephone conversations are private in the U.S. Phone companies can't simply give this information away.
Why have the phone companies have been so complaint? They cannot be ignorant of the law. These are huge multinational companies with armies of lawyers. It could be that they are patriotic citizens, and simply felt the need to aid the cause of anti-terrorism. Or, more likely, they complied because they were currying favor with the president, expecting him to return the favor with a tax cut or regulation change in the future. This, to think about it, is a terrible thought: Telecom companies may be trading citizens' privacy for political favors.
At any rate, when the truth about these warrantless searches surfaced, about 20 groups filed lawsuits against the carriers for violation of privacy. This prompted the Bush administration to add the clause to the FISA bill in Congress to protect the companies from lawsuits.
This immunity provision is a terrible law. It cancels the legal standing of the lawsuits. Ordinarily, I am not big on class action suits, but in this case I am on the side of the plaintiffs. The telecom companies broke the law by handing over phone records without demanding warrants. If the new FISA bill goes through, the lawsuits will be dismissed. If the suits do not go forward, there will be no legal discovery, no subpoenas, no examination of who turned over what records and when. The public will never find out which phone records were handed over, and which phone calls were wiretapped. Bush maintains that only people suspected of terrorism were tapped, but given his history I am not inclined to believe him. I want to know what the President was doing. I am willing to bet that the wiretaps were far more widespread, and more dubious, than he is letting on.
I understand that counter-terrorism is an important government function. But counter-terrorism is not a blank check. A president is still accountable for his actions. If this bill goes through, I have no doubt these warrantless wiretaps will never be investigated and we will never know how far the Bush administration has snooped into the private lives of its citizens.
If he did nothing wrong, what is he afraid of?
Congress should not pass this bill as it is.
This is how Our Dear Leader President Bush asks for legislation these days. He tells us that Congress must bow to his will or we all will die.
In this public statement, Bush was urging Congress to pass his version of the new FISA law, a federal statute that regulates how, among other things, U.S. intelligence is allowed to eavesdrop on phone calls. Both houses of Congress have more or less agreed to his proposal, with one exception. Bush wants the law to include a clause granting retrograde immunity to telecom companies that illegally supplied he government with phone records over the last six years. The Senate has agreed to this provision, but the House is balking. Bush has threatened to veto any bill that does not include retrograde immunity.
I do not pretend to be an expert on all aspects of this law, but here is the issue as I understand it. Since the September 11th attacks, the Bush administration has repeatedly asked telephone companies for their phone records during its anti-terrorist investigations. The telephone companies have been freely supplying this information, and allowing the Bush people to listen in on phone calls without search warrants. Under normal circumstances, telecom companies cannot supply such information, even if they want to, without a warrant. Telephone conversations are private in the U.S. Phone companies can't simply give this information away.
Why have the phone companies have been so complaint? They cannot be ignorant of the law. These are huge multinational companies with armies of lawyers. It could be that they are patriotic citizens, and simply felt the need to aid the cause of anti-terrorism. Or, more likely, they complied because they were currying favor with the president, expecting him to return the favor with a tax cut or regulation change in the future. This, to think about it, is a terrible thought: Telecom companies may be trading citizens' privacy for political favors.
At any rate, when the truth about these warrantless searches surfaced, about 20 groups filed lawsuits against the carriers for violation of privacy. This prompted the Bush administration to add the clause to the FISA bill in Congress to protect the companies from lawsuits.
This immunity provision is a terrible law. It cancels the legal standing of the lawsuits. Ordinarily, I am not big on class action suits, but in this case I am on the side of the plaintiffs. The telecom companies broke the law by handing over phone records without demanding warrants. If the new FISA bill goes through, the lawsuits will be dismissed. If the suits do not go forward, there will be no legal discovery, no subpoenas, no examination of who turned over what records and when. The public will never find out which phone records were handed over, and which phone calls were wiretapped. Bush maintains that only people suspected of terrorism were tapped, but given his history I am not inclined to believe him. I want to know what the President was doing. I am willing to bet that the wiretaps were far more widespread, and more dubious, than he is letting on.
I understand that counter-terrorism is an important government function. But counter-terrorism is not a blank check. A president is still accountable for his actions. If this bill goes through, I have no doubt these warrantless wiretaps will never be investigated and we will never know how far the Bush administration has snooped into the private lives of its citizens.
If he did nothing wrong, what is he afraid of?
Congress should not pass this bill as it is.