Senate Passes “Eye of Sauron” Act
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 9, 2008 at 2:48 PM PT
What a remarkable display of political expediency. In a 69 to 28 vote, the U.S. Senate approved The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a sweeping new surveillance law that will effectively grant immunity to telecom companies for cooperating with the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program in the years after Sept. 11, 2001 (All in favor of a blatant assault on civil liberties say “aye!”). FISA’s passage is a major legislative victory for the current administration and for telecoms like AT&T (T) and Sprint Nextel (S) who will soon see the dismissal of some 40 lawsuits pending against them.
And as for the “those-who-would-sacrifice-liberty-for-security- deserve-neither” crowd? Well, perhaps they can find some solace in this comment from Senator Christopher S. Bond, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee: “There’s nothing to fear in this bill, unless you have Al Qaeda on your speed dial.”
All depends on who you ask, I guess, because the Electronic Frontier Foundation says there’s actually quite a bit to fear no matter who you have on speed dial.
“It is an immeasurable tragedy that just after its return from the Fourth of July holiday, the Senate has chosen to pass a bill that betrays the spirit of 1776 by radically expanding the president’s spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal surveillance program,” said Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “This so-called compromise bill represents a shameful capitulation to the overreaching demands of an imperial president. As Senator Leahy put it in yesterday’s debate, the retroactive immunity provision of the bill upends the scales of justice and makes Congress and the courts handmaidens to the White House’s coverup of its illegal surveillance program.”
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Comments
Just when we outside of the United States think the long nightmare might be over, along comes the unbelievable again.
/world shakes its head.
Posted by Bruce Evans at July 9th, 2008 at 9:33 pmThis is appalling. Senator Bond says there is nothing to fear unless Al Qaeda is on our speed dial. While this may be true for today, what about the precedent this sets for the future. Now that most of us are tied to our cell phones, our private thoughts communicated to the one person we are talking to will be fair game for our own government to spy on us for whatever the “concern of the day” happens to be.
Posted by jeanne galbraith at July 10th, 2008 at 12:51 amThis goes beyond appalling. While I too am concerned about security for myself and family, I don’t believe that the solution lies in allowing congress to shred the consitution. Is it possible to impeach the President and the Senate?
Posted by Ernest Alvarez at July 10th, 2008 at 6:53 amI’m in favor of surveilling terrorist’s communications to prevent them from blowing up the city John Paczkowski lives in.
To all those who are concerned about the Feds spying on *you*: Get over yourself. W is just not that into you.
Posted by Matt Lohr at July 11th, 2008 at 12:36 pm