Immunity for Telecoms for Violating the Law?

On February 12th, 2008, the Senate voted on a provision which will be included in the update to the thirty year old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The provision was to remove retroactive immunity to lawsuits directed at the telecommunication companies which participated in the intercepting of and spying on of phone calls coming to and going out of the United States without seeking warrants from the FISA court first.

The bill failed in the Senate, 31-67. In turn, the Senate sided with the Bush administration, agreeing that the Telecoms should have retroactive immunity to lawsuits regarding their violation of the FISA laws that were on the books at the time.

If you'd like to see how your Senator voted, click here. For the record, Hillary abstained from voting and Barack voted against immunity for the Telecoms.

In 21 days, the House of Representatives will vote on their version of the bill. If you feel that it is important these telecommunication companies be held accountable for their roll in violating the FISA laws, contact your congressman or woman now! Inaction on our behalf will help continue to set a terrible precedent for what an American Presidential Administration can get away with while in office.

Remember, these companies violated the law. These laws were in place for a reason and were designed to protect the American people. National Intelligence director Mike McConnell recently said the following:

"The reason that the FISA law was passed in 1978 was an arrangement was worked out between the Congress and the administration, we did not want to allow this community to conduct surveillance, electronic surveillance, of Americans for foreign intelligence unless you had a warrant, so that was required."

This issue is crystal clear. To read more of the Salon.com story, click here. More importantly, remember to contact your congressional representative. Thank you.