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August 17, 2007
By a
Congressional Democrats who endorsed the bill disagreed. "Today's bill helps restore the balance between security and liberty," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, said in a statement after the vote.
The legislation is partially an outgrowth of still-unresolved allegations that U.S. telecommunications companies provided assistance to the National Security Agency's surveillance programs in violation of federal laws since--and possibly even before--the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. The Bush administration has requested that Congress approve legislation granting retroactive legal immunity to any telecommunications company that aided government spying.
Democratic leaders deny that their bill will make it harder to spy on foreign terrorists, but Republican leaders claim that the bill contains enough loopholes to require a warrant for eavesdropping on Osama bin Laden and other foreign terrorists.
"The bill gives terrorists overseas more rights under the law, than individuals inside the U.S.," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. "That is simply absurd."
Supporters of the House bill say it allows intelligence agents to continue to snoop on foreigners without a warrant and to obtain "basket warrants" for surveilling foreign terrorist organizations.
At the same time, supporters say, the bill will provide additional safeguards for Americans' privacy and more oversight over the shadowy court that's charged with approving eavesdropping requests when one end of the communications belongs to a U.S. person.
The legislation is part of an update to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that the Bush administration argues is necessary to make intelligence gathering more efficient amid changing technologies.
Now focus will shift to the Senate, where a new battle over the immunity issue is likely to heat up soon.
The House vote arrived just hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved its own spy law rewrite but
The Senate Intelligence Committee has already approved a different version of that legislation, containing a
The White House has already made it clear it vastly prefers the Senate Intelligence Committee version, but critics say that one gives the executive branch too much unchecked authority to eavesdrop, without a court order, on communications between Americans and people "reasonably believed to be outside the United States."
Both the Senate and House are attempting to craft a more permanent
replacement to a
The existing law, however, does not grant immunity to companies that may have cooperated in the past. The Bush administration has been threatening to veto any bill that does not contain that retroactive protection.
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), one of the Restore Act's authors, said the politicians "cannot even begin to consider this request" until they receive administration documents, which they say they requested 10 months ago, describing the telephone companies' activities in more depth.
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Cart
But all that aside, I think saying "King" George (and he has declared "Divine Right" to rule the U.S. like kings before him) has done worse than Musharaf is a little hyperbolic and really doesn't help in reasoned arguments that this administration has broken the U.S. Constitution. At least Bush hasn't completely suspended the Constitution ... yet.
I agree, this is absolutely absurd...why is our government giving us less rights that Osama Bin Laden. Doesnt the idiot who wrote this understand that he is essentially admitting to taking away our civil liberties?
Please, get the facts and not sound bites.
None of this helps protect the country. Remember none of the 9/11 terrorists did anything they could not do today.
The Executive Branch MUST respect the rule of law.
"I hope those who coddle terrorists like these activists do are
the first one's to be blown up by Al Qaeda when they visit
American again."
Comments like that make me realize it's hard for people like you
to think on their own, but please - for the love of our great
nation - try.
Al Qaeda will visit America again WHEN BUSH INVITES THEM TO.
OBL isn't the true enemy of our nation, he's just a fairly
intelligent pissant nuisance. The true terrorists, the real enemies
of America, are currently residing in the White House itself.
Bush allowed 9/11 to happen to further his desire for war with
Iraq. He knew it was planned from the PDB given to him in early
August (a month before it happened). The FBI was already
investigating those involved, curious as to why they were taking
flying lessons but didn't seem concerned with how to land the
freakin plane. They *knew* they were here and knew they were
planning something, they even knew *what* they were planning.
What did they do to stop it?
Consider this - all this TSA security in the airports means
nothing when year after year security testers can sneak bomb
making materials past them and onto planes.
Answer me this - do you honestly believe our military is capable
of finding Saddam hiding in a spider hole in the middle of the
Iraqi desert, yet incompetent enough to not be able to find OBL
on top of a mountain?
Do you really feel safer now? It's time to wake up from this
nightmare WJeansonne and start to repair the damage this
incompetent nazi pseudo-president has done to us. The
alternative is to stay in the nightmare and wonder in 5 years
how we got to be the next nazi Germany.
"Better to die free than to live as a slave"
Your ancestors fought and maybe even died so that you could live free from the tyranny of an oppressive government. Now you're virtually giving up all that they struggled for?
There are countless people out here in the real world, the free world, who would be the first in line to be killed in the next terrorist attack so that YOU could live in a free and open society.
People say that terrorists hate freedom, I say that giving up your freedoms to protect yourself from terrorism is the same thing as loosing to terrorism. Every time that the government spies on an innocent US citizen, it's another victory for terrorism. They don't need to take your freedom, you're giving it away. You're giving them a victory.
"Terrorism" isnt the real "threat"... Those, idiots and criminals, that are USING (or allowing) "terrorism" to destroy everything that the United States, stands for, ...are the REAL "enemy".
- Worst. President. Ever.
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by FrankTurd
November 16, 2007 1:12 PM PST
- Worst. President. Ever.
-
Reply to this comment
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(17 Comments)Feel free Bushy to veto this, but as soon as you're gone, you entire administration and the criminals that run it will be probed, tried and jailed come 2008.
The phony president.