Chairman Reyes responds to DFA. DFA's answer: Prove it.

[aggiesal]

Here is an email from the Political Director of DFA, Charles Chamberlain.
Please read and pass on the message. Also call Rep. Reyes if possible.
1922 calls, really is not that many. 10K or 100K would be better.

Intelligence Committee Chairman,
Rep. Silvestre Reyes
[phone]

Suggested Script:

"As the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Reyes must stand with Speaker Pelosi and the majority of House Democrats against telecom immunity.

I am depending on Chairman Reyes to stand up to President Bush and protect America without granting a get-out-of-jail free card to companies that broke the law."

****************************************************************************

Our campaign demanding Chairman Reyes stand up to President Bush is working. After 1,922 reported calls, the Chairman's Chief Counsel, Jeremy Bash, contacted DFA and insisted that we were "shooting the wrong target."

Our answer was simple: Prove it.

This morning, DFA received a letter that the Chairman asked we post on our website. Sadly, the Chairman still gets it wrong:

"The issue is how to craft legislation that only protects companies that acted lawfully."

Chairman Reyes: they don't need immunity if they didn't break the law. America doesn't need parsed words and legalese, America requires leadership.

Chairman Reyes got your calls; let's make sure he gets the message. Contribute $25 right now, so we can run ads that turn up the heat on Chairman Reyes.

www.DemocrayforAmerica.com/FISAads

Chairman Reyes has stood up to President Bush before, he must do it again.

On Feb 12, the Chairman wrote "it is an insult to the intelligence of the American people to say that we will be vulnerable unless we grant immunity for actions that happened years ago."

Last August, he voted against the Administration's bill, the Protect America Act. Last month, he insisted that Congress stand firm and not simply rubber-stamp the Senate FISA bill, despite over-heated rhetoric from the President that doing so would somehow endanger the country. He knew better, and he called out the President on his false rhetoric.

But last weekend, Chairman Reyes said "after receiving documents from the Bush administration and speaking to the companies" a deal was likely "within the next week."

Rep. Reyes doesn't need to make a deal with President Bush and Vice President Cheney. He must hold the Bush administration accountable and not let AT&T and Verizon off the hook for spying on innocent Americans. Contribute $25 right now and send a clear message to Chairman Reyes to stand up to President Bush.

www.DemocrayforAmerica.com/FISAads

In the Chairman's letter , he also says:

"So the issue isn't whether someone is 'for' or 'against' telecom immunity. We are all 'for' telecom immunity if the compliance is consistent with the law."

Rep. Reyes still doesn't get it. The issue is very simple:

* If the phone companies did nothing illegal, the courts will make that determination.
* If the phone companies did something illegal, they should be held accountable in the court of law.
* This is America's last chance to hold the Bush administration accountable for their illegal warrantless wiretapping. Ending these lawsuits before a trial has even begun will forever let George Bush and his cronies off the hook.

Sen. Dodd and other Democrats with backbone have stood up against any and all forms of telecom immunity. Here's what Senator Dodd had to say:

"I believe that cases against the telecoms are best handled in our standard federal courts -- which, by the way, have shown time and time again that they know how to protect state secrets."

Don't sit this campaign out. Let's turn up the heat on Chairman Reyes together. Contribute $25 right now.

www.DemocrayforAmerica.com/FISAads

Thank you for everything you do.

-Charles

Charles Chamberlain
Political Director

P.S. A complete copy of the Chairman's letter to DFA is available on the home page of our website.

[gratuitous]

1. What are we considering immunity for?

It really is quite simple, Mr. Reyes. As Jesus famously remarked to the Pharisees, “Those that are well have no need of a physician.” By the same token, those who have not broken the law have no need of amnesty or immunity.

So we may safely assume that the telecoms did break the law, and are now sorely in need of immunity. Ordinarily, a prosecuting attorney will consider giving a lawbreaker immunity in exchange for something else. The usual coin of the realm is sworn testimony against a co-defendant, and the way it usually works is that prosecutor will give some low-level perpetrator a break because that perpetrator’s testimony will help convict the criminal overlord. Do the telecoms know something that will lead to conviction of wrongdoing for someone else? Is there some criminal overlord who should be sweating the outcome of this proposed immunity?

Immunity is also conditioned on a full accounting of the wrongdoer’s crimes. I’m willing to take your word for it if you can tell the American people that you have thorough knowledge of what laws the telecoms broke, when they broke them, at whose behest, for what purpose, and that they won’t do it again, or all deals are off. Do you know all of this, or are you just issuing a blank check to be cashed as a get out of jail free card?

In his book “No Future Without Forgiveness,” Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu detailed the hard work done by the South African Truth Commissions to unravel the crimes of the apartheid regime. The thugs and murderers of the apartheid regime were offered immunity for their crimes, but they had to testify to their actions in open court. The idea behind the Commission was that the criminality was so widespread and so pervasive, that much of it would never be prosecuted. But for those willing to come forward and fully testify to their own criminal actions, forgiveness was granted.

What do we know about what the telecoms have done? Do we have a full accounting? Because right now, it appears that many of them broke the law, despite being fully aware of what the law was and is. We often say in our society that ignorance of the law is no excuse, and that bromide is used as a cudgel against the poor and the uneducated. How much more should wealthy corporations, with access to the best legal minds money can buy, be held accountable for knowingly breaking the law?

If you don’t know what the telecoms have done, only that by their own grudging admission they’ve broken the law, it would be highly irresponsible to consider immunity without knowing fully what they did.

[Laelth]

2. Very thorough and informative response. Thanks. n/t

:patriot:

-Laelth

[DCKit]

4. I don't believe the Telecoms are asking for immunity.

#43* wants it for them. Then, by extension, the actions of the malAdministration are not illegal either. I believe the Telecom's stance will be that they consented in good faith, though they should have known the orders were illegal.

With immunity, the Telecom's can't sue the government under RICO and whatever other statutes that may apply to the actions they took to gain compliance.

[gratuitous]

5. Then we're back to who do we get?

If Reyes is considering immunity for the telecoms, who know they broke the law, then who are the telecoms going to give up? A good prosecutor wants to be sure that if he's letting a little fish go, it's because he can use it as bait for the big fish.

As it is, there doesn't seem to be any quid for this quo. The telecoms skate on their lawbreaking, and that's the end of it. We don't know exactly what they did, who they did it for, or why. And we surely don't move up the line to the guys giving them the orders.

This is a piss poor deal as far as the American people are concerned. Who is Reyes representing? And who is he supposed to be representing?

[Wizard777]

7. We don't need their testimony. Bush has already confessed to authorizing the crime.

Impeachment is still off the table. How can they be this freaking stupid?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. Kick!

[Oilwellian]

6. I just tried to call

Busy busy busy...maybe that's a good sign. I'll keep trying. C'mon DU'ers, you can take 1 minute and make this most important call. Let your voice be COUNTED as a NO for immunity.