May 3rd, 2007
Bush wants immunity for telcos that assisted in illegal searches
With dozens of lawsuits against phone companies for cooperating with the Bush Adminisration's domestic spying operations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation's suit against AT&T, President Bush is now asking Congress to give immunity to the phone companies, The Washington Post reports.
Lots of luck getting that one through a pretty pissed off Democratic Congress.
The proposal states that "no action shall lie . . . in any court, and no penalty . . . shall be imposed . . . against any person" for giving the government information, including customer records, in connection with alleged intelligence activity the attorney general certifies "is, was, would be or would have been" intended to protect the United States from terrorist attack. The measure, which has not yet been filed, is contained in a proposed amendment to the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill.
This little bit of stonewalling comes as the FBI was found to have contracted with phone companies to obtain phone records. Without probable cause to search someone's records, however, that's a violation of the Fourth Amendment. So the bureau claimed the requests qualified under the "exigent circumstances" exception to the Fourth. The Supreme Court has interpreted this to mean a danger the suspect will escape or destroy evidence. The Justice Dept. inspector general found that no such circumstances existed; the FBI just plain lied.
"To let them off the hook now sets a dangerous precedent by encouraging them to continue to engage in illegal collaborations with the government in the future," said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which last year filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T for allowing the government to unlawfully monitor U.S. residents.
"The end result is not only will the Bush administration continue to stonewall Congress in its request for information on warrantless wiretapping, but no one who participated will have any threat above their head. You could just face a congressional subpoena and say, 'I'm sorry, I'm immunized,' " the ACLU's TimSparapani said.
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he wouldn't support immunity for companies that intentionally broke the law.
