ACLU on NoRetroactiveImmunity.com

[babylonsister]

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2064

ACLU on NoRetroactiveImmunity.com
by: Matt Stoller
Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:23:45 PM EDT

This is great.

The American Civil Liberties Union stands behind senators who have pledged to stand up against any FISA gutting legislation that includes letting the telecom companies off-the-hook for illegal activity. Senators who have pledged to stand against immunity for telecoms are: Senator Joseph Biden (D-CT), Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI). Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). Senator Dodd was the first to announce that he would actively oppose any legislation that included immunity for illegal acts committed by telecommunications companies over the past six years.

The ACLU joins other public interest groups and leading political bloggers in an effort to urge Congress to stop the FISA gutting legislation. EFF, Act for Change, Working Assets and MoveOn have also joined the effort to ask Senators to stand against the FISA gutting legislation that is being considered in Congress.

The online endeavor, www.noretroactiveimmunity.com, is just one of the efforts to urge changes to the domestic surveillance legislation that the administration is pushing in both chambers of Congress. The ACLU also wants to see both House and Senate surveillance legislation changed to require individual warrants before the government is allowed to access call information from Americans on American soil. On the Senate side, the legislation, called the FISA Amendments Act, is heading to the Judiciary Committee next week where the ACLU is urging significant changes to the current draft of the legislation.

With Steny Hoyer making noise like he's going to oppose amnesty (with the caveat that he could be screwing us behind the scenes), and Dodd's continued pressure, we're moving.

[tabasco]

1. This is really important.

Because of the precedent. These companies should be punished or it will just happen again and again.