WASHINGTON — After months of wrangling, Democratic and Republican leaders reached a deal Thursday that would re-write the rules for the government’s wiretapping powers, and would provide what amounts to limited immunity to the telephone companies that took part in President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The deal would expand the government’s powers in some key respects. It would allow intelligence officials to use broad warrants to eavesdrop on foreign targets, and to conduct emergency wiretaps on American targets without warrants if it is determined that important national security information would be lost otherwise.
The deal would also make the phone companies involved in the post-Sept. 11 program immune from legal liability if a district court determines that they received valid requests from the government directing their participation in the warrantless wiretapping operation.
Never mind the fact that the FISA statute already allows the government to do "emergency" wiretaps with after the fact justification. What is the purpose of legislation that restates what's already on the books? Oh that's right, the immunity thing.
What exactly constitutes a "valid request from the government?" I'll tell you what constitutes a valid request. It's a fucking warrant that's what. it's a court order. They didn't receive one of those. So what exactly is the point of the whole district court proceeding? Oh I know!! The appearance of some kind of "due process."
See the congress doesn't want to do it's job. The Judiciary committe doesn't want to do it's job and the Justice Department doesn't want to do it's job, so they pawn the clearly illegal activity onto a district judge who they can then point fingers at when the inevitable "AT&T is in the clear" decision comes down.