| President Bush's efforts to enshrine his program of warrantless surveillance of Americans into law, as well as immunize any telecom companies who assisted the government in lawbreaking from prosecution, has gotten a new lease on life -- and once again, the Democratic leadership in Congress are acting as enablers. Glenn Greenwald has the details: It is now definitively clear that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is the driving force behind a bill -- written by GOP Sen. Kit Bond -- to vest the President with vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers and to vest lawbreaking telecoms with amnesty. Even as his office dishonestly denies that he is doing so, still more reports yesterday -- this one from the NYT and this one from Roll Call (sub req'd) -- confirm that a so-called "compromise" is being spearheaded by Hoyer and the House Democratic leadership. The ACLU and EFF held a joint call today to denounce Hoyer's "compromise" as nothing more than disguised guaranteed immunity for telecoms and, further, because "the proposed deal could be used to authorize dragnet surveillance of Americans' communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment."
Greenwald is organizing a new campaign to pressure Hoyer and the Congressional leadership to stand firm, as they did the last time Bush tried to get retroactive immunity through Congress; so far he's raised over $60,000. Greenwald should have more details about the campaign soon, so check his blog regularly for updates. |
