Senate Delays Eavesdropping Vote

WASHINGTON — The Senate granted at least a temporary victory to the White House on Thursday, turning back an attempt to increase court oversight of the government's surveillance of phone calls and e-mails that involve people inside the United States.

The 60-36 vote to reject increased powers for the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court came as senators worked against a Feb. 1 deadline to extend the law governing how U.S. intelligence agencies carry out electronic eavesdropping.

Further action on the legislation was delayed until Monday, pushing Congress closer to the deadline, and leaving unresolved the most contentious issue in the bill: whether to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the government conduct warrantless surveillance.

The Bush administration is insisting that any new law protect from potentially crippling civil lawsuits those telecom companies that helped the government eavesdrop on Americans after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nev., blamed Republicans for the delay, saying they were trying to block a series of amendments majority Democrats sought to offer.

"It appears the president and Republicans want failure. They don't want a bill," Reid said.

The draft bill, written by the Senate Intelligence Committee, would update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The law, first enacted in 1978, dictates when federal agents must obtain court permission before tapping phone and computer lines inside the United States to gather intelligence on foreign threats. Agents may tap lines outside the country without court oversight.

It was the second time in six weeks the Senate had taken up the FISA modernization bill, only to see action stymied. Reid abruptly closed down debate in December when it became clear the Senate couldn't finish work before the holiday break.

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Most vexing to the intelligence agencies, without an extension of the law the government this summer would return to needing individual court orders to listen in on any communication that passes through U.S. telecommunications switches and computer servers _ even those that are between people who are outside the country. This is not required by FISA, according to legal experts, but became the practice over time to provide firms with legal protections.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., on Thursday proposed extending the existing law for 30 days to buy the Senate additional time to produce a bill. The House completed its version of the bill last fall.

In a move to resolve the immunity issue, the key impasse on the legislation, the White House ended months of resistance Thursday and agreed to give House members access to secret documents about its warrantless wiretapping program.

The Bush administration is trying to persuade the House to agree to retroactively shield from liability those companies that helped the government eavesdrop on Americans without the approval of the FISA court. About 40 such civil lawsuits are pending against telecommunications firms, and the administration says if the cases go forward they could reveal information that would compromise national security. It also contends that the companies could be bankrupted if the lawsuits are successful.

The companies were helping the administration carry out the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program, a still-classified effort that intercepted communications on U.S. soil without oversight from the FISA court from Sept. 11, 2001, to Jan. 17, 2007.

Reyes and Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House intelligence panel, requested access to the White House documents in May. House Democrats say they will not support telecom immunity without seeing them first. Some senators were given access to the documents last fall.

The documents include the president's authorization of warrantless wiretapping, Justice Department legal opinions going back to 2001, and the requests sent to the telecommunications companies asking for their assistance.

Comments

[sugarmoes]

bush supporters have the OPPORTUNITY to realize a very rude awakening in the near future. they will likely choose to live in denial and repeat the same old and tired defeatist mantras that rush and bill and sean and the like teach to them like "the surge is working" and "bush is protecting us".

the opportunities to awaken:

2008 elections - their "team" will be trounced. will they get the message?

military - soon the military will totally abandon and discredit bush. it's already there for those who look but soon it will become nearly undeniable (except for those who choose to remain blind) because the information will be so widespread and available and more importantl­y... accepted. the military itself will show that bush more than anyone else has a) set the military well on the path to ruin and b) the bush administration should not have gone into iraq in the first place but then, when america unfortunately trusted her "elected" president and went in anyway... the bush administration actually hindered the military from achieving what could have been a very quick and effective effort in iraq - simply... securing the peace after the initial strike. the bush administration did everything it could to NOT let that (securing the peace) happen. the military knew what to do and how to handle the situation as it unfolded. bush (rumsfeld, cheney, et al) told them he knew better and STOPPED THEIR EFFORTS.

[sugarmoes]

i can save everyone a lot of time...

ARREST CHENEY AND BUSH!
DETAIN THEM!
PUT THEM ON TRIAL FOR WAR CRIMES! (among other crimes)

[afgail]

Punish the DINOs with primary challenges by progressive Democrats. This probably won't work for Feinstein because she is getting too old to run for re-election. And her husband's war profiteering aught to make her unelectable in California next time around.

[JJinWI]

http://asknadler2impeach.org

[thromulese]

The FISA court, law and order, the constitution, the writ of habeas corpus, a democratic spine, the Geneva convention, and the truth, are all sooooo pre 911.

The republicons are fascists

The democrats are pussies

With a dynamic like that, the fascist always wins because the pussies always cave in to the fascist and give them what ever they want.

But the democratIC party must remember if they vote yes; they will be forever linked with the criminality of the bush and the dick.

[RTIII]

This is a poorly written article, I think, because it doesn't tell us just which of the three versions failed today. The three are/were: One version that includes telecom immunity is generally known as EITHER the "the president's version" or "the Intelligence Committee version", another is called the "Feinstein Version" which has a provision in which immunity is at the descretion of the FISA court itself, and a third version, the "Judiciary committee version" has NO provisions of immunity.

Feinstein's version is a Trojan Horse as far as I can see. If they aren't guilty, they don't need immunity. If they are guilty, I want them prosecuted. I do NOT want to have to trust some hidden court to rule on this. So, in my book, Feinstein's version is out.

So too, of course, is any version with Telecom (or any other) retroactive immunity, thus ruling out the "Intelligence Committee version".

The only acceptable version is the Judiciary Committee version, in my eyes. If you agree, CALL YOUR SENATORS - THIS IS NOT OVER YET!

[JJinWI]

Over 200,000 signed the original Wexler impeach petition,
don't let it end here. The only way to kill the snake is to get it
out in the open and cut off its head.

Go Here: http://asknadler2impeach.org

Stop the GOP from blocking Cheney impeachment hearings trying to move forward in Congress.

[kevenseven]

Take Action!

Call, fax and e-mail your senators and congressman, demand that immunity be put aside.

Go to: http://act.credomobile.com/campaign/wiretapping08

It is a petition to the presidential candidates to return to DC and support Dodd's filibuster. Please sign it.

[JJinWI]

Over 200,000 signed the original Wexler impeach petition,
don't let it end here. The only way to kill the snake is to get it
out in the open and cut off its head.

Go Here: http://asknadler2impeach.org

Stop the GOP from blocking Cheney impeachment hearings trying to move forward in Congress.

[lovethesinner]

It's about the law, Nancy and Harry. It's time to grow some spine.

It's time to do the right thing. Don't let these crooks get away with their crimes, and don't create a precedent where PRESIDENTS can just break laws now, and change the law, later.

We're watching you Nancy and Harry! It's time to act like vertibrates. Climb out of the primordial slime of earmarks and trading favors for your political capital. WE NEED TO INVEST IN THE FUTURE OF LAW, not politics.

[ultomatt]

"The White House says if the cases go forward they could reveal information that would compromise national security. It also contends that the companies could be bankrupted if the lawsuits are successful­."

I guess, Bush going to prison for life would compromise national security, huh?

And isn't it curious that the very people who rail and complain about socialism, are themselves corporate socialists, working overtime to bring extraordinary "rights" to corporations. Not only do the massive corporations get endless "consideration" when it comes to taxes and "incentives", they're now aiming to be beyond the law entirely..­.if this insanity continues and they get the "immunity" that Bloody George is asking for.

In a socialist society, corporations get extraordinary protection, because they are, by definition, social entities. In a so called free market, it's every man, and corporation, for themselves. So which are we, a free market, or a socialist country? We're whatever Bloody George and his fellow sociopaths want us to be, on any given day, cause it's their words that make it real, not actual reality.

[RDixon]

What will that accomplish?
We all know Congress doesn't read anything.

[Lemeritus]

The most "dangerous gaps in the government's ability to gather intelligence" is the space between George W's ears.

Are we to believe that an administration that is incapable of or unwilling to preserve emails (pursuant to the Presidential Records Act) can now produce documents credible enough to sway legislation in favor of warrantless wiretaps?

[gcallaghan]

The house members can bet their next elections that what they'll see is not the actual program because missing from it will be all the data Bush collected on themselves and their families.

[outnow]

A document dump? Hm...and a hurry up deal. Some lost, some missing, some altered - just the ones dealing with domestic politics against, say, Quakers. That guy in the Quaker Oats box looks pretty dangerous to me. Kinda like Benjamin Franklin, a true radical. He believed in "liberty." Dangerous, very dangerous, indeed!!!!!