It’s about time the Democratic-controlled House passed the FISA update. The sticking point about the telecoms getting immunity was solved by letting them explain to a federal judge that they received permission from the White House.
One Congressman who voted against the bill was Rep. Steve Kagen. He’d still rather fight terrorists on airplanes than make sure they never get on.
“House Passes Compromise Wiretapping Bill” [via memeorandum]
Joe, lawsuits, whether legitimate or not, cost money to defend. By granting the telecoms retroactive immunity it prevents those suits from being drawn out. That seems reasonable since companies taking reasonable steps to assist the government during a time of war is a rather patriotic thing to do. They shouldn’t be punished for trying to do with right thing.
As for Qwest they obviously were more risk-averse (not less patriotic) than other telecoms. That goes to show how much fear our messed up legal system has produced.
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You really are a moron. If the telcos did nothing illegal as Bush and his cronies contend, why do they need retroactive immunity? What could they be prosecuted for if there were no laws broken?
This update lets telcos off the hook by basically saying that they can’t be touched if they acted under orders of the President… no matter how illegal and unconstitutional those orders were. We already know he told thenm to do it, so this really becomes a “get out of jail free” card for law-breaking telcos.
As for the “but the President told them to…” argument, the President also told Qwest Communications to illegally spy on Americans. Using common sense, Qwest realized that the request was completely illegal without a warrant, and told the Feds to get stuffed. My oh my, how were we ever able to protect ourselves from terrorism when one of the telcos wouldn’t play illegal ball? Because it was never necessary in the first place. This FISA update commends AT&T and Sprint for doing the government’s illegal bidding, while companies that understand civil rights (like Qwest) are turned down for major government contracts. But I’m sure that was just a coincidence. Moron.