Congress Passes, Bush Signs FISA Bill

The Democratic Congress has given the most unpopular president since polling began a huge gift this week when the Senate passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 2008, which the House already approved. The bill, signed yesterday, allows the US government to intercept electronic communications without going to the trouble of getting a proper warrant to do so. Mr. Bush has been doing this since he came to office, but now, it isn’t a crime.

One of the key issues in the bill was retroactive immunity from civil suits for those telecom companies that had cooperated with the administration in illegal eavesdropping. The White House has claimed that it started doing so after the events of September 11, 2001, and that national security justifies the measure. Yet in February 2001, Qwest Communications International refused to cooperate with a request for information without a warrant. Former Qwest CEO Joseph Naccio says his company lost a major NSA contract as a result. He was also convicted of 19 counts of insider trading in Qwest stock, so his word may not suffice. On the other hand, perhaps his conviction was revenge.

Nevertheless, the shareholders of all the telecoms who cooperated are now protected due to the passage of the bill. The White House has also protected itself because the 40 or so lawsuits now pending are null and void. The discovery process, the examination of documents, the calling of witnesses are all halted. And this is likely the reason that Mr. Bush insisted he would veto any bill that didn’t carry such immunity (someone should have called his bluff). The Justice Department can still prosecute on criminal grounds, but the Attorney-General is unlikely to open up cans of worms in which he himself may have been involved.

Obviously, some Democrats voted against the bill such as Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Hillary Clinton of New York, and some tried to amend it into something more palatable such as Connecticut’s Chris Dodd. However, the most insightful comment came from the GOP’s own Arlen Specter, “There’s an old expression: buying a pig in a poke. It means buying something that you don't know what it is you're buying. Well, that's what the Senate is being asked to do here today — to grant retroactive immunity to a program where the members don't know what the program is.”

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” This bill is clearly in violation of those words. Sadly, since it’s secret surveillance, a citizen can’t prove he was under such surveillance, and therefore, he can’t prove standing in court to challenge the constitutionality of the law. One might want to check the calendar to see if it’s 1984.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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