Thread: The John Birch Society: temporary surveillance law

Democrats in the House of Representatives chose to let a temporary surveillance law expire on February 16, rather than make it permanent.

At issue was whether the permanent version should include retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that were sued for invasion of privacy after helping U.S. intelligence agencies conduct warrantless surveillance.

Surveillance efforts will still continue against targets that have already been approved. But eavesdropping on new targets would have to meet the standards in place before last August. Those standards require that probable cause be established that a target was connected to a terrorist group.

Republican proponents of warrantless wiretapping claim that lawsuits could put telecom companies out of business. But one Democratic senator correctly noted, "It's nothing more than a scare tactic designed to avoid legal and political accountability and keep Americans in the dark about the administration's massive lawbreaking."

It's time to see the House stand up for the rule of law.

Click here to take action on this issue.

http://capwiz.com/jbs/issues/alert/?ale ... 36&type=CO

As we have pointed out numerous times over the past year, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) effectively gives the Executive Branch of the federal government a blank check to eavesdrop on telephone calls and e-mail messages between foreign countries and the United States.

These warrantless wiretaps are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires that any searches be conducted only upon issuance of a warrant under conditions of probable cause.

The Executive Branch and the largest telecommunications companies have been working for many years in almost complete secrecy, with no oversight and no recognition of legal limits, to spy on Americans, first in the name of the War on Drugs, and then in the name of the War on Terror.

Despite the blatant illegality of their actions, both the federal government and the telecom companies (which reap tidy profits from the associated government contracts) want to see the present situation continue.

To ensure the future co-operation of the telecom companies, federal politicians want to grant them amnesty, in order to protect them from any lawsuits resulting from their illegal activities. The Senate voted 68-29 on February 12 to update FISA and maintain immunity for the telecom companies.

Fortunately, Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to schedule a vote on the House version of the bill. Democrats in the House were willing to extend the present law for three more weeks while they worked on reconciling differences, or to pass the surveillance part of the bill but not the immunity part. President Bush and his Republican cronies decided to play hardball, demagogue the issue, and demand all or nothing. So they got nothing.

Use the alert below to contact your representative and ask that he/she vote against any legislation that includes retroactive immunity for telecom companies, when the House again takes up the matter, after returning from the Presidents' Day recess.

Please use the following message as a guideline to contact your senators. You can edit it, in order to make it more personal and original. Please take advantage of the editing function, to avoid the appearance of a form letter, which experience shows to be less effective.


Thank you,

The John Birch Society

The dems do not want immunity because they are protecting the trial lawyers, huge supporters of the party and HUGE dollars to be made off litigation. I don't believe anybody really cares about breaking amendments.....they already break a lot of them. Everything is a power struggle. Both parties quit caring about people's rights a long time ago.

I have to laugh when I hear people say they support the democrats because they are for the "little people" or the "common man." After the elections they will never associate with a "common person" until the next election, the only time they need the "little" people. All politicians are the same. If they start out good, the system eventually corrupts them with power.

Why didn't anybody protest Clinton's "Echelon" program, the most intrusive and prevasive eavesdropping program ever and it wasn't targeted toward any enemy. EVERY electronic transaction, voice or otherwise was monitored. 60 Minutes even did a program on it and NOT a peep out of anybody. Just shows the bias and the power struggle of politics.