White House, Congress, and Telecoms Against YOU.
This is from a post at Chronicles of Dissent.
Arlen Specter’s “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Substitution Act of 2007″ (S. 2402) is a dangerous piece of proposed legislation because his bill aligns Congress, the White House, and the telecoms against the citizenry. Indeed, his bill would be more properly named the “Telecoms Shield Act of 2007″ or the “Substituting Our Judgment for the Courts Act of 2007″ because what it would do is dictate who we may or may not sue and what the courts must do if some conditions are met.
If I understand it correctly, what S.2402 says is that if the Attorney General certifies to a court that an electronic communication service provider assisted the government because it was given a written directive saying that: (1) the President had authorized the program and the requested assistance was determined to be lawful and (2) the assistance was designed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack, and (3) the assistance took place between Sept. 11, 2001 and January 17, 2007, then the Court must substitute the U.S. government as the defendant in the civil action and dismiss the case against the electronic service communication provider. Because the certification can be made in camera and ex parte, we would still find out nothing about what really went on. The only time that a telecom might remain as a defendant is if its “assistance” exceeded what it was asked to do in writing.
. . .
Because the Senate may take up the FISA amendment bill this week (and it is not certain at this point which version of S.2248 Reid will bring to the floor) and because Specter’s bill will be considered by the Judiciary Committee Dec. 6th at 10:00 AM, it is important to make your views known quickly. See if your senator is on the Judiciary Committee, and if so, contact him or her and say, “Let the lawsuits go forward without immunity for the telecoms. We’ll accept no substitute for our civil liberties.” If your senator is not on the Judiciary Committee, you can use these numbers to reach the Judiciary Committee:
Democratic Phone: (202) 224-7703
Democratic Fax: (202) 224-9516Republican Phone: (202) 224-5225
Republican Fax: (202) 224-9102
(Apparently if you’re not in one of the two major parties, they don’t have a phone number for you to call.)
You may also want to call Harry Reid and tell him to bring the Judiciary Committee’s version of S.2248 (the one without an immunity provision) to the floor instead of the Intelligence Committee version. You can reach Reid through his web site contact form or call 202-224-3542.
