It will include full immunity for those companies that can demonstrate to a court that they acted pursuant to a legal directive in helping the government with surveillance in the United States.
Such a demonstration, which the bill says could be made in secret, would wipe out a series of pending lawsuits alleging violations of privacy rights by telecommunications companies that provided telephone records, summaries of e-mail traffic and other information to the government after Sept. 11, 2001, without receiving court warrants.
As Kagro X stated in her diary on Daily Kos, " That's a gut punch directly to the very foundation of western civilization."
I urge all of you to call Chris Dodd's office now and urge him to stop this insanity.
Our Rep. is Joe Courtney and I've already given his DC office a phone call. Please call your Rep. and ask him/her to support the FISA Modernization Act of 2007.
"The FISA Flood Continues: Call Now for the Constitution!
Two bills were introduced yesterday to fix the disastrous Protect America Act that was rushed through Congress in August, rubberstamping the administration's warrant less wiretapping program. Both were efforts to fix FISA, but we must make it clear that only the FISA Modernization Bill does the job.
The RESTORE Act caves in to Bush's fear-mongering in a major way by allowing for program or basket "warrants," which aren't really warrants at all. They're the modern-day equivalent of allowing government agents to sit in our living rooms, recording our personal conversations. Only they're more frightening, because the government now has the capacity to monitor us remotely and without our knowledge, and to save the information in a secret database forever.
It's no surprise that the Bush Administration is again using the threat of terror to bully Congress into giving them more power than it needs to keep us safe. To counter these misrepresentations, your representative needs to hear that America can be both safe and free by passing a FISA Modernization bill that protects our Constitutional rights. Please, call your representative right now. Tell him or her to support the FISA Modernization Act instead of the RESTORE Act."
I received the above email from ACLU, and you can log onto their web page to find the phone number you need to call and to log your phone call with them. Go to.... https://secure.aclu....
WE MUST PROTECT OUR PRECIOUS CONSTITUTION AND THE RIGHTS & FREEDOMS IT GRANTS US. Many, many great Americans have given his/her lifes blood to protect our Constitution. All our reps need to do is give up their vote.
Tell them that they have to stop thinking of their darn re-election in 2008 and ACT NOW to make the bold step toward what the voters really want. Don't be afraid of how the Repbs' will spin it, they spin everything, anyway & everyway.
goes to U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken for her ruling in the case brought by Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield against the U.S.government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in March 11th 2004.
Mayfield, a former army officer with an honorable discharge and a convert to Islam, was taken into custody on May 6, 2004, after the FBI claimed his fingerprints matched one found on a detonator at the scene of the Madrid bombings. He was released about two weeks later after the FBI admitted that the fingerprints had been misread.
Before his arrest, Mayfield had been put under 24-hour surveillance, and the FBI had listened to his phone calls and surreptitiously searched his home and law office.
The Mayfields challenged the Patriot Act amendments to FISA that allow federal agents to circumvent Fourth Amendment probable cause requirements when investigating persons suspected of crimes, and sought a
declaratory judgment that 50 U.S.C. §§ 1804 and 1823, as amended by the Patriot Act, violate the Fourth Amendment.
Judge Aiken agreed. She ruled that the amended FISA statutes "permit the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."
And the the Fourth Amendment, she goes on to say, "has served this Nation well for 220 years, through many other perils."
Prior to the FISA amendments, Judge Aiken points out "the three branches of government operated with
thoughtful and deliberate checks and balances...[which]effectively curtail overzealous executive, legislative,
or judicial activity regardless of the catalyst for overzealousness. The Constitution contains bedrock principles that the framers believed essential. Those principles should not
be easily altered by the expediencies of the moment."
But under Bush and Co, Judge Aiken points out we're "expected to defer to the Executive Branch and its representation that it will authorize such surveillance only when appropriate. The defendant here is asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive
it of any real meaning. This court declines to do so. For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law - with unparalleled success. A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill- advised."
Amen to that, sister Judge.
And thanks for standing up for We the People. It almost makes up for the way I've felt let down by CT's Congresspeople and junior Senator in their votes today.
This Sunday, the New York Times had a detailed - and saddening - article about the recent legislation passed by Congress expanding the Bush administration's powers as they related to domestic surveillance and FISA. Senator Dodd voted against the surveillance bill, but unfortunately far too few Democrats joined him and the bill passed. Now, because there wasn't a collective refusal to grant more power over Americans' civil liberties to George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales, we have a law in place which dramatically increases the power the executive branch has to conduct surveillance, wiretaps, and physical investigations without meaningful checks on those powers.
How bad a job did Congress do on this legislation? The Times reports this sad note:
The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.
But this actually goes against what Senator Dodd has told us about the vote on this bill. In an interview with Glenn Greenwald, Dodd related the details of the legislative process around FISA:
GG: Can you describe what you think it is that motivated 16 of your colleagues in the Democratic caucus to vote in favor of this bill?
CD: No, I really can't . . . We had caucuses during the day, so everyone knew what was there. You had a vote at 10:00 at night, people say I didn't know what was there, then normally I can understand, but we had a caucus during the day. There was a lot of conversation about it.
GG: So this wasn't a Patriot Act case where people can claim ignorance because there was a rushed vote? There was a careful assessment of what the terms in this statute were?
CD: Absolutely. In fact, even during the vote, Carl Levin was sitting there, and Carl said: "look, I want everyone to read this" . . . . Most people know about the Gonzales references and the 180 days -- there is also a section, as Carl pointed out, that basically says that if they can prove reasonably that you're out of the country -- not that you're not a citizen, just out of the country [then they can eavesdrop on you] . . . .
Were it not for the fact that the problem only continues to get worse, I might scrap this posting altogether. But as Congressional leaders head for their favorite vacation spots, our country is going down the drain; and the Democratic Congress continues to be complicit! On that basis, I wish to encourage all who care about the future of our fast-eroding democracy to get on the phones, take to the airwaves, and/or write anyone who might possibly deign to listen. It's too late to do much about FISA; but something else will come up soon enough . . .
Many voters are beyond disappointed at the current performance of Congress. Some of this disappointment is unavoidable, as Democrats do not have a veto-proof majority; and because of faux-democrat Joe Lieberman, they don't even have a simple majority in the Senate.
Nevertheless, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid could be more proactive in the interests of this country than they have been so far; and they now have a golden opportunity to draw the line. I hope others will join me in suggesting that now is the time to stand firm.
Let Congressional leaders tell the Administration that without agreement on other matters -- which would need to include prior, sworn testimony from the likes of Harriet Miers and Karl Rove, there cannot even be any discussion about "toying" with FISA.
It has been apparent for a long time that when you give Bush-Cheney an inch, their people always take a mile; of course, they even take the mile when not a millimeter has been conceded. Congress really is the primary obstacle preventing a not-so-silent coup; never has this country been more vulnerable to its very own thugs-in-suits. Darth Cheney has learned from Nixon's mistakes; it is time to recognize this fact -- and say so!
Please call Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid, and encourage others in your network to do the same. Tell our too-cautious leaders that, this time, there can be no compromises: Compromise assumes and requires an honest intention to negotiate. It must be a two-way street. Can anyone remember the last time that Dick Cheney compromised about anything?
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