Glenn Greenwald is up in arms (what else is new?) over the fact that the Senate has moved to protect telecom companies from lawsuits related to their cooperation with the federal government in domestic surveillance. The Washington Post reports on the measure:
Senate Democrats and Republicans reached agreement with the Bush administration yesterday on the terms of new legislation to control the federal government’s domestic surveillance program, which includes a highly controversial grant of legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted the program, according to congressional sources. . . . The draft Senate bill has the support of the intelligence committee’s chairman, noted conservative wingnut John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Bush’s director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell. It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States. Such a demonstration, which the bill says could be made in secret, would wipe out a series of pending lawsuits alleging violations of privacy rights by telecommunications companies that provided telephone records, summaries of e-mail traffic and other information to the government after Sept. 11, 2001, without receiving court warrants. Bush had repeatedly threatened to veto any legislation that lacked this provision.
In-depth coverageas the midterms
take shape.
Follow the latest midterm news, analysis, and expert perspectives with unlimited access.
See Subscription Options
Already a member? Log in
Print subscriber? Click here to login/register your account
Digital subscriber? Click here to login/register your account.