DEMOCRATS HELPING TO GIVE TELCOS IMMUNITY FOR WARRANTLESS WIRETAPS

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DANNY O'BRIEN, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUDATION - Newsweek is reporting
that companies like AT&T, working with the White House are using their
money to push for blanket retroactive immunity for their involvement in
the administration's warrantless wiretapping schemes: "But critics say
the language proposed by the White House -drafted in close cooperation
with the industry officials- is so extraordinarily broad that it would
provide retroactive immunity for all past telecom actions related to the
surveillance program. Its practical effect, they argue, would be to shut
down any independent judicial or state inquires into how the companies
have assisted the government in eavesdropping on the telephone calls and
e-mails of U.S. residents in the aftermath of the September 11 terror
attacks."

The plan is to kill by fiat the court case the EFF is running against
these phone companies. What's weird is the Democrats appear to be going
along with this, even though it would effectively cover up the Bush
administration's past crimes. As Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon,
quoting a New York Times piece:

"Democratic Congressional aides say they believe that a deal is likely
to provide protection for the companies."

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/20/telcos-secretly-lobb.html

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