President Bush rallies for immortal spy law changes, telco protection
President Bush this week ventured by helicopter to the National Security Agency's Maryland headquarters, where he made a public, photographed, 6-minute plea to Congress: Make expanded Internet and phone surveillance powers permanent.
Without an extension of the "tools" provided by the Protect America Act, which is set to expire February 1, "our country will be much more vulnerable to attack," Bush said Wednesday, according to the White House's transcript of his remarks.
President Bush calls for extension of a controversial spy law at NSA headquarters on Wednesday.
(Credit: White House)The president said Congress must heed the repeated statements by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell about the importance of the temporary new law. It effectively expanded the sort of snooping that the government can do without a court order under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by allowing warrantless surveillance of "a person reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States." It also put the power to approve such eavesdropping for one-year periods in the hands of the attorney general and intelligence czar.
The Bush administration maintains that the changes are consistent with FISA's intent--that targeting foreign communications doesn't require a warrant--and that a warrant is still required for "targeting a person in the United States." But civil-liberties advocates argue that the government is creating a loophole to monitor Americans' e-mails and phone calls to overseas contacts without the intended court approval.
The new law also immunizes from legal liability the private companies that assist the government with surveillance going forward, but Bush repeated existing calls for making that policy retroactive as well.
"It's particularly important for Congress to provide meaningful liability protection to those companies now facing multibillion-dollar lawsuits only because they are believed to have assisted in efforts to defend our nation, following the 9/11 attacks," Bush said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has sued AT&T over its allegedly illegal cooperation with the government, says references to the crippling liability posed by such suits suggest that the scope of the wiretapping is "massive."
"The statutory penalties for warrantless wiretapping are relatively small per person--even if AT&T was ordered to pay the maximum penalty, a few hundred illegal wiretaps would amount to less than a rounding error in the phone company's quarterly statements," EFF attorney Kurt Opsahl wrote in a recent blog entry. "If the NSA was truly limiting its spying to suspected terrorists, the potential liability would be like an annoying gnat on an elephant. So why are the companies so worried?"
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for his part, reacted politely to the president's speech this week. "The Democratic Congress will pass legislation to strengthen the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, while also respecting the privacy of law-abiding Americans," he said in a statement. "Neither the White House nor congressional Republicans should use this process to create a political wedge issue."
The longer-term danger from greatly increasing the power to spy on the public (and also the resultant self-censorship) is that it *will* eventually be abused - it's just way too tempting a tool for those in power (of any party).
The article mentions Mitch McConnell - he was just forced to change his testimony after claiming these powers helped catch the cell in Germany, when in reality these powers weren't used and weren't needed.
"The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of the weapons provided for defence against real, pretended, or imaginary dangers from abroad." -- James Madison, 4th US president (1751-1836)
Historically whenever authoritarian rulers seek to diminish
freedom to the point of slavery, there are common events.
First there is the imminent threat of outside invaders that must
be repelled at any cost (Germany's Reichstag, USA's 9/11). Then
there is rapid change in gov't to give more powers to the
executive (Hitler, Bush). Then comes the widespread spying on
common people (Gestapo, NSA). Then there is a new army
created, seperate from the normal national armed forces (SS,
Blackwater).
The comparisons are many, and not just between the Nazis and
the Bushes. It's just history repeating itself, and we will be
doomed lest we forget.
Think of the kid getting tasered for asking the "wrong" questions
at the Kerry speech. The other students SHOULD HAVE STOOD
UP and at least said "Stop hurting him!" But nobody did.
The time now is crucial to stop being wallflowers and exercise
our RIGHTS to question what is going on. There are not enough
terrorists out there to merit all this madness.
Pay attention to exit polls at elections - these fascists may be
rigging the votes.
RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COST,
FREEDOM is something that I'd fight to the death to protect.
I guess at this point in his term Bush wants to permanently screw the American public as much as he can before his "presidency" ends. I really hope no one is falling for this fascist load of crap.
BUSH your time has come.
protection?
Of course this is par for the course for this administration, break
any laws you want, lie about it and arrest anyone who questions
it.
You know, the Constitution gives us the right to rise up and
overthrow any corrupt government. We've never needed to do it
before, but this administration is exactly why we have that
provision. Maybe we should exercise this right.
administration violating the Constitution, breaking laws,
mismanaging wars and encouraging terrorism to thrive worldwide,
while lying about everything.
The Constitution gives us the right, no the *resposibility*, to
overthrow a corrupt government. I say the time is ripe to excercise
this responsibility for the first time.
- Show us where this is necessary.
- by bemenaker September 20, 2007 12:28 PM PDT
- There is no proof that FISA needs to be circumvented. NONE. Nothing but BS lies about how these illegal plans have helped, when they haven't. Seems every time they they try to shovel that smelling heap on us, it turns out to be totally fabricated, like the recent Germany case, the one solved by old fashioned police work.
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(11 Comments)FISA is retroactive specifically to not get in the way. This is just smoke an mirrors.