wiretaps

A shadowy federal court that meets behind closed doors to hear wiretapping requests says it won't publicly release even portions of its rulings.

In response to a formal request from the ACLU, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said on Tuesday that it won't divulge the abridged text of the orders dealing with the Bush administration's eavesdropping scheme on grounds that it could endanger national security.

The 24-page opinion (PDF) disagreed with the Bush administration's suggestion that the ACLU's request be necessarily dismissed out of hand. But after considering the request, the court rejected it on … Read more

The Bush administration has released formerly classified documents that show how it is pressing Congress to rewrite surveillance law and immunize telecommunications companies from lawsuits.

What's also interesting about the documents, which were released in response to the Freedom of Information Act on Monday, is how much is redacted. Entire pages have been excised, in one case leaving only two paragraphs visible.

A few highlights from the the files (1 and 2) obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation after a court battle:

• Pages 6-8 of file 1: National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told Congress three months ago that … Read more

A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to divulge documents related to immunizing telecommunications companies from lawsuits, saying they illegally opened their networks to the National Security Agency.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco gave the Office of the Director of National Intelligence until November 30 (Friday) to turn over documents relating to conversations it had with Congress and telecommunications carriers about how to rewrite wiretapping laws.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation had filed this case to seek faster processing of a Freedom of Information Act request it filed, which could help buttress its ongoing lawsuit against … Read more

A federal appeals court may have given a boost on Friday to high-profile lawsuits alleging that AT&T and other telecommunications companies illegally opened their networks to the National Security Agency.

In a case involving an Islamic charity, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it would be premature to pull the plug on the group's lawsuit based on the Bush administration's fears that court proceedings would necessarily disclose "state secrets."

That case is called Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. President Bush. It's unusual because the now-defunct foundation reportedly found, as the result of … Read more

Update 12:42 p.m. PST: A key U.S. Senate panel on Thursday pushed back a hotly anticipated vote on a new proposal to shield telephone and Internet companies from lawsuits alleging illicit cooperation with federal spying programs.

The Senate Judiciary Committee had planned to consider the bill, known as the FISA Amendments Act, at its morning business meeting. The lengthy measure, among other things, would effectively crush the pending lawsuits against companies like AT&T and Verizon, as well as some ongoing investigations by state utility commissions into their practices. It was already approved by a 13-2 … Read more

WASHINGTON--Despite demands from President Bush to shield telephone and Internet companies from surveillance-related lawsuits, key U.S. senators are reluctant to offer legal immunity. But they may force taxpayers to pick up the legal tab instead.

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the co-chairmen of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a hearing here Wednesday that they still don't have enough information to decide whether it's wise to immunize any past assistance by telecommunications providers to a wide swath of U.S. government agencies over the last six years.

That's precisely what would happen, however, … Read more

With the majority of the Democrats caving in to the Bush administration's demands for full immunity for the telecom companies for-profit collusion in the NSA's illegal wiretapping program, it seems to be clear that the Fourth Amendment and federal antiwiretapping laws are no longer enough to keep our communications secure. Laws stating that "thou shalt not listen to your customers phone calls" no longer seem to have any bite. Or at least, they don't as long as teleco lobbying coupled with massive political contributions can turn once critical senators into kindly old men willing to … Read more

In the face of a presidential veto threat, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives pushed off a scheduled vote Wednesday on legislation designed to limit warrantless wiretapping.

The Democratic acquiescence was a victory for President Bush, who said last week that the proposal was unacceptable to him.

Opposition had come from both sides. Republicans had savaged the proposal as harmful to national security. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said on Wednesday that the delay was "bad news for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists," thereby illustrating McCullagh's Law in action. Meanwhile, privacy advocates, including the American … Read more

The Bush administration's remarks about retroactive legal protection for telecommunications companies show Washington has become an even more surreal place than usual.

First, President Bush said on Wednesday that federal law "must grant liability protection to companies who are facing multi-billion-dollar lawsuits only because they are believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend our nation following the 9/11 attacks."

Then Ken Wainstein, the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division, waxed eloquent with a surfeit of "allegedlys":

Here you have allegedly companies that stepped up and answered the government's request … Read more