More like EXTORTION!!!
"Bush to let more senators see surveillance memos; Shield for telecom firms up for vote" by James Rowley/Bloomberg News October 26, 2007
WASHINGTON - President Bush will let some Senate Judiciary Committee members see legal memos about his terrorist surveillance program before the panel votes to shield telephone companies that cooperated with the government from privacy suits.
The White House will allow Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of the committee, and ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to read the government's justifications for the interception, without court warrants, of suspected terrorists' telephone calls and e-mails, Leahy said.
The panel will soon consider legislation, already approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to immunize AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and other carriers from lawsuits accusing them of illegally sharing customer calling data with the government.
If it was all legal as we've been told, then why the need for immunity?
But they will get it from this supine and subservient Congress!
Providing retroactive immunity to the telephone companies without knowing details of the program "scares the heck out of me, just the thought of it," Leahy said at a committee meeting in Washington. The documents might help lawmakers "at least know what we are doing," he said.
More than 40 lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages have been filed in San Francisco federal court against AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel Corp., and other carriers. The suits say companies that cooperated with the surveillance broke privacy laws by giving the government customer data.
That's a lot of lawsuits; something must have been done wrong.
Bush spokesman Tony Fratto said White House Counsel Fred Fielding offered Leahy and Specter a chance to "review material that would be helpful in legislating on the issue of extending liability protection."
Why couldn't they have it sooner, then?
Another Judiciary Committee member, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two Senate Democrat, said he won't vote on the measure without first seeing the legal memos. Intelligence Committee members were allowed to see the memos before their vote.
Later yesterday, the White House said the offer to Leahy and Specter extends to the other senators and staff they designate. Fratto said any such lawmakers and staff would be given a classified briefing first.
???
Leahy told reporters he expected to see the documents as early as Monday.
The material includes written communications to phone companies that assisted the spy agency with interceptions Bush ordered after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Except it was BEFORE the Sept. 11 attacks!!!!!
WHY is the MSM COVERING THAT UP and LYING ABOUT IT!!!!!
Bush has demanded the retroactive immunity for phone companies as part of legislation that would give a secret intelligence court more supervision over the collection of calls and e-mails by foreign-based terrorists into the United States."
RETROACTIVE is UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!
Article I, Section 9: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."
"Panel to See Papers on Agency’s Eavesdropping" by SCOTT SHANE
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 — The White House on Thursday offered to share secret documents on the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program with the Senate Judiciary Committee, a step toward possible compromise on eavesdropping legislation.
Allow, offer to share.
If you don't believe this is a dictatorship, then what is it, readers?
Fred F. Fielding, the White House counsel, offered to show the documents to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, the committee’s chairman; Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the committee; and staff members with the necessary security clearances, said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman.
Mr. Fratto said that if Mr. Leahy and Mr. Specter so wished, other committee members would be granted clearances for the N.S.A. program and permitted to see the documents. A spokeswoman for Mr. Leahy, Erica Chabot, said he would make sure the entire committee had access.
Then what was the big hassle about it?
Only Senate Intelligence Committee members and their staffs have seen the documents.
Neither the House Intelligence Committee nor the House Judiciary Committee has been shown the documents.
WHY the fuck NOT?
Mr. Fratto noted that a bill pending in the House contained no provision for immunity from lawsuits and suggested that unless that changed, the House committees would not see the documents:
“If the committees say they have no interest in legislating on the issue of liability protection, we have no reason to accommodate them.”
So BEND OVER, House, and TAKE IT UP the ASS!!!
That's what is known as EXTORTION in the world the rest of us live!!!!!!
And the fucking ARROGANCE of this shitter White House is astounding!
Mr. Fratto said the administration was generally pleased with the Senate bill, though it opposes its six-year sunset provision and is seeking changes in the language of a provision that would require court warrants for eavesdropping on Americans traveling overseas:
“Over all, it’s a pretty good start.”
Yeah, this unpopular fucking administration can just issue demands, etc!!
This shit is fucking ENRAGING, and yet the stink fuck DemocraPs roll over and butt-prop!
The security agency’s program to eavesdrop without warrants on international communications of Americans and others in the United States suspected of links to Al Qaeda started with extraordinary secrecy after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
There they go again, LYING about when the program started!!!!!
It started WAY BEFORE the Sept. 11 attacks!!!!!
The ILLEGAL EAVESDROPPING STARTED as soon as BUSH/CHENEY came into office!!!!!
So, HOW COULD THEY NOT KNOW about 9/11?
HOW COULD THEY have NO CLUE like they claimed afterwards?
The questions ANSWER THEMSELVES, readers!
The documents at issue include orders signed by President Bush every 45 days to reauthorize the surveillance and legal opinions prepared by the Justice Department to justify the program.
Two Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, voted against the Senate bill in committee. Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, has vowed to fight any legislation that grants immunity to the telecommunications companies."
Yeah, we'll see!
Do you have any faith in DemocraPs?
