Stop the Spying

Last week, House passed a bill that grants telecoms immunity for the warrantless wiretapping they did in the past - and allows them to continue doing so in the future! From the Wired blog:

"The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation," said Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, the only senator who voted against the Patriot Act in 2001. "The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the President’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home."

The bill grants amnesty to the nation's telecoms that are being sued for allegedly breaking federal wiretapping laws by turning over billions of Americans' call records to government data-mining programs and giving the government access to internet and phone infrastructure inside the country. The bill strips the right of a federal district court to decide whether the companies violated federal laws prohibiting wiretapping without a court order.

Within the next few days, Senate will vote on this piece of legislation. If last week's vote in the House is any evidence, this vote will also be in favor of this gross piece of legislation that takes away our right to privacy - unless you do something about it. CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY - the Electronic Frontier Foundation makes it easy for you to find your senator and make sure your voice is heard. This five-minute phone call could make the difference for our nation - we need to protect our rights to privacy, and ensure that the Executive Branch of our government cannot flagrantly disregard the law.

If all that isn't enough to convince you, BoingBoing just quoted a fascinating piece by Salon's Glenn Greenwald. In part:

It is absolutely false that the only unconstitutional and destructive provision of this "compromise" bill is the telecom amnesty part. It's true that most people working to defeat the Cheney/Rockefeller bill viewed opposition to telecom amnesty as the most politically potent way to defeat the bill, but the bill's expansion of warrantless eavesdropping powers vested in the President, and its evisceration of safeguards against abuses of those powers, is at least as long-lasting and destructive as the telecom amnesty provisions. The bill legalizes many of the warrantless eavesdropping activities George Bush secretly and illegally ordered in 2001. Those warrantless eavesdropping powers violate core Fourth Amendment protections. And Barack Obama now supports all of it, and will vote it into law. Those are just facts.

The ACLU specifically identifies the ways in which this bill destroys meaningful limits on the President's power to spy on our international calls and emails. Sen. Russ Feingold condemned the bill on the ground that it "fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home" because "the government can still sweep up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in the U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards to protect against abuse of this power." Rep. Rush Holt -- who was actually denied time to speak by bill-supporter Silvestre Reyes only to be given time by bill-opponent John Conyers -- condemned the bill because it vests the power to decide who are the "bad guys" in the very people who do the spying.

It's chilling to think that our presidential candidate supports this bill, especially when Barack Obama vowed to "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." MoveOn.org may support Obama as a candidate, but is appalled by his lack of commitment to this past promise. They encourage you to call Obama's campaign office and let them know how you feel about this frightening bill. So, after you call your senators, take another minute to call Obama and make sure your voice is heard.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr user xirannisx shared under a Creative Commons license.)

Comments

[Rosemary Regello]

Hi from San Francisco. In case you don't think the U.S. presidential election involves the U.K., our Sen. Obama will be visiting you folks soon. Please be advised this candidate is pure hype, a product of the corporations who own American media. Obama is supporting the FISA law after doing a 180 flip from his position in February.

Please get the word out about him. Click on my screen name for several articles that document his ties to the Bush Administration and the Iraq war profiteering sector. His handlers are hoping to create huge crowds to greet him in London, thereby improving his image in the U.S. Don't fall for the propaganda, folks, because that's all it is with this guy.