FISA Fight: Megacorporations Breaking The Law & Doing EVERYTHING In Their Power To Get Away With It

[kpete]

FISA Fight - has nothing to do with national security. It has everything to do with megacorporations breaking the law and doing everything in their power to get away with it.

Court papers recently filed by government lawyers in the case confirm for the first time that since last fall unnamed representatives of the telecoms phoned and e-mailed administration officials to talk about ways to block more than 40 civil suits accusing the companies of privacy violations because of their participation in a secret post-9/11 surveillance program ordered by the White House....

The recent responses in the Electronic Frontier Foundation lawsuit provide no new information about the administration's controversial post-9/11 electronic surveillance program itself, but they do shed some light on the degree of anxiety within the telecom industry over the litigation generated by the carriers' participation in the secret spying. One court declaration, for example, confirms the existence of notes showing that a telecom representative called an Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) lawyer last fall to talk about "various options" to block the lawsuits, including "such options as court orders and legislation." Another declaration refers to a letter and "four fax cover sheets" exchanged between the telecoms and ODNI over the surveillance matter. Yet another discloses e-mails in which lawyers for the telecoms and the Justice Department "seek or discuss recommendations on legislative strategy."...

.......................

The debate over a new surveillance authorization is likely to be complicated by figures showing sharp increases in the government's electronic eavesdropping on U.S. citizens. One report filed with the office of the administrator of the U.S. Courts shows that standard wiretaps approved by federal and state courts jumped 20 percent last year, from 1,839 in 2006 to 2,208 in 2007. Later this week another report is expected to also show increases in secret wiretaps and break-ins approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in terror and espionage cases. But even these secret wiretaps and break-ins—estimated to be about 2,300—tell only part of the story. They don't include other secret methods the government uses to collect personal information on U.S. citizens.


http://www.newsweek.com/id/134930

[bdamomma]

1. SOB's they should all be arrested.

:grr:

[lovuian]

2. Yep

send their butts to jail

Bush & Cheney has lots of partners in crime and they need to go down

[Echo In Light]

3. K&R

[ThomWV]

4. What its all about is keeping Administration Officials out of jail, not lawsuits against telecoms

The congress could limit the liability of the telecoms to 1 doallar per case if they wanted to. That could be negotiated, but what can't be hidden is the illegal orders and demands that came from the White House and their disclosure if immunity is not granted.