http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200710/POL200 71011b.html Immunity in Dispute for Telecoms that Tracked Terrorists By Monisha Bansal CNSNews.com Staff Writer October 11, 2007
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote next week on a bill that would revise surveillance laws passed in August. Republicans say the proposal would undermine the protections put in place in the Protect America Act, which was signed into law in August. Democrats say their bill will restore constitutional checks and balances to the way electronic surveillance is used to gather intelligence. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle apparently are conflicted about whether private telecom companies -- firms that aided government surveillance efforts against suspected terrorists following 9/11 -- should be given retroactive immunity from possible prosecution under various wiretapping laws. House Democrats introduced the RESTORE Act on Tuesday. The bill meets the objectives that the administration and the Democrats support, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) at a press briefing on Wednesday. However, the White House reportedly is unhappy with the bill, because it lacks a provision that would protect telecom companies from being prosecuted for aiding the government after 9/11 in its surveillance of suspected terrorists. The bill does, however, include a provision to protect the companies in the future. It's the lack of retroactive protection that worries the administration. Cybercast News Service hit Capitol Hill Wednesday to ask members of Congress if they would support giving the companies immunity, with the following question: "Should the government ever prosecute communications companies for helping the government intercept international communications with suspected al Qaeda links in the years after 9/11?" In response to a question from another news outlet, Hoyer said, "Prospectively, obviously a company acting pursuant to law ought to be given in my opinion immunity for complying with the law. With respect to retroactive immunity ... that issue cannot be considered by the Congress of the United States until such time as we know what we are being asked to give immunity to." ( <http://cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/audio/2007/101007Hoyer.wav> Click here to listen to his full statement) "Perhaps no wrongdoing occurred, maybe everybody acted in good faith," Hoyer added. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) told Cybercast News Service: "The administration has essentially given the telecommunications companies a form of amnesty. Since they have the protection of the administration and cooperation with the administration, I don't know what kind of cause of action we would have against them." ( <http://cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/audio/2007/101007Kucinich.wav> Click here to listen to his full statement) Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, called the bill "fatally flawed" but said "the telecommunications companies need to abide within the law - whoever they are providing or cooperating with. The U.S. government should never ask them to violate or break the law and if [through] some other process they are found to have violated the law, of course they're accountable for their actions." ( <http://cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/audio/2007/101007Hoekstra.wav> Click here to listen to his full statement) But Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) said, "Under no circumstance should we punish a company who assisted the highest levels of our government in the immediate aftermath of the largest attack ever on our homeland for doing the right thing, which has so far resulted in no additional attacks in the United States." ( <http://cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/audio/2007/101007Putnam.wav> Click here to listen to his full statement) Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) added, "Telecommunications companies clearly participated in cooperating after 9/11. Within days of that cooperation beginning now Speaker Pelosi and Jane Harman and others on both the Republican and Democrat side in both the House and Senate were briefed in detail. They're either co-conspirators or in fact they essentially, constitutionally approved in a time of war - a time of uncertainty - the need to protect America." ( <http://cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/audio/2007/101007Issa.wav> Click here to listen to his full statement) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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