OMG, Liberals WORST nightmare (nothing Obomanation!)

[IEATV8S]

Administration, Congress Settle Dispute Over Surveillance

The White House and Congress today reached a deal on the most comprehensive overhaul of the nation's intelligence surveillance laws in 30 years. It would provide potential retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that previously cooperated with the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program and extend government surveillance powers.

After months of negotiations between President Bush's top advisers and congressional leaders, the deal was announced today and set to be approved on the House floor tomorrow. Senate passage of the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which had been held up since last summer largely because of fights about the immunity provision, would likely come next week.

Some Democratic leaders have argued that the bill does not go far enough in protecting civil liberties. They were backed by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union that have filed lawsuits against telecommunications companies for helping the government monitor phone calls and e-mails into and out of the United States without warrants after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

A key element of the new plan would give U.S. district courts the chance to evaluate whether telecommunications companies deserve retroactive protection from lawsuits. A previous proposal offered by Republicans would have put the question to the secret FISA court that approves warrants.

The proposal would give retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that can show the court that they received assurances from government officials that the program was legal and that they have "substantial evidence" in the form of classified letters from authorities to support their position.

The immunity would cover companies that helped the government after the terrorist attacks until Jan. 17, 2007, when the surveillance program was brought under the secret FISA court.

The retroactive legal protection would not apply to lawsuits filed against the government on behalf of people who say they suffered harm because of the surveillance.

Caroline Frederickson, a lobbyist for the ACLU, said the court review into whether companies received government requests to take part in the warrantless eavesdropping amounts to little more than "window-dressing."

"The telecom companies simply have to produce a piece of paper we already know exists, resulting in immediate dismissal," she said.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) immediately signaled his opposition, saying that bill "lacks accountability measures I believe are crucial" to allow for courts to rule on whether the wiretapping program is legal.

Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is suing AT&T over the surveillance, urged Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, to "be as vocal as possible in the coming weeks and to lead his party" in opposing the plan.

"No matter how they spin [the compromise], it is still immunity," Bankston said.

But House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), who has been the lead Democratic negotiator with the White House and congressional Republicans, said this week that the bill is much better than the version approved earlier this year by the Senate, which allowed for no court review of the immunity.

"It will accommodate the protection of civil liberties going forward," Hoyer said yesterday.

The outlines of the deal bode poorly for more than 40 lawsuits filed against telecommunications providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint for providing vast troves of customer data to government investigators after the terrorist attacks.

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and leaders of the intelligence community have warned that if a deal to overhaul FISA were not struck this summer, valuable information that could help forestall terrorism might be lost.

Democrats fought the administration over the immunity provision for the warrantless wiretapping program -- which many civil libertarians viewed as unconstitutional -- and delayed passage of the FISA overhaul. Instead, they passed the Protect America Act last August, providing some of the new laws needed to monitor suspected terrorists. FISA court orders that allowed continued surveillance while the legislation was debated are scheduled to expire early this August, according to administration officials.

Critics question whether the data really would have been unavailable and whether the administration is citing a possible intelligence gap for political gain.

"It looks like it was all give from the Democratic side and all take from the Republican side," ACLU's Frederickson said.