Senate Panel Balks at Telecom Immunity

[babylonsister]

Senate Panel Balks at Telecom Immunity
Submitted by davidswanson on Thu, 2007-11-01 03:09. Congress | Spying

By PAMELA HESS, AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that the nation's courts may be the only way to determine if the White House violated wiretapping and privacy laws when it eavesdropped on Americans without court orders.

The senators remain reluctant to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that allegedly helped.

Legal protection for the companies is a top priority for President Bush, who has vowed to veto any eavesdropping bill that does not provide it.

Telecommunications companies face about 40 civil lawsuits nationwide for alleged violations of wiretapping and surveillance laws at the Bush administration's request. Another five lawsuits have been filed against the U.S. government.

At issue is the interception of American e-mails and phone calls from 2001 to 2007. The so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program was conducted without the consent of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees intelligence agencies' eavesdropping inside the United States.

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http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28282

[Inuca]

1. I like what Leahy is saying

Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he would agree to immunize telecommunications only if there is an effective way to scrutinize the Bush administration's secret surveillance program.

"The lawsuits ... are perhaps the only avenue that exists for an outside review of the government's program, an honest assessment of its legal arguments, especially as the Congress has for years been stonewalled on this program," Leahy said at a committee hearing Wednesday.