The Boston Globe dropped the Times version and gives you the Post (why?).
Here the Times version:
"WASHINGTON — After months of wrangling, Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress struck a deal on Thursday to overhaul the rules on the government’s wiretapping powers and provide what amounts to legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in President Bush’s program of eavesdropping without warrants after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Ummm, yeah, except Bush's Wiretapping Began BEFORE 9/11!! and the New York Times Admits Bush Administration Spying Began in December of 2000... BEFORE TAKING OFFICE!
The deal, expanding the government’s powers to spy on terrorism suspects in some major respects, would strengthen the ability of intelligence officials to eavesdrop on foreign targets. It would also allow them to conduct emergency wiretaps without court orders on American targets for a week if it is determined that important national security information would otherwise be lost....
The agreement would settle one of the thorniest issues in dispute by providing immunity to the phone companies in the Sept. 11 program as long as a federal district court determined that they received legitimate requests from the government directing their participation in the program of wiretapping without warrants.
With AT&T and other telecommunications companies facing some 40 lawsuits over their reported participation in the wiretapping program, Republican leaders described this narrow court review on the immunity question as a mere “formality.”
“The lawsuits will be dismissed,” Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 2 Republican in the House, predicted with confidence.
Never mind if "retroactive" immunity is unconstitutional:
Article I, Section 9: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."
The proposal — particularly the immunity provision — represents a major victory for the White House after months of dispute.
Un-fucking-real!!!!! Tar and feather them ll!
“I think the White House got a better deal than even they had hoped to get,” said Senator Christopher S. Bond, Republican of Missouri, who led the negotiations....
TYPICAL DemocraPs!!!!!!!!!!
In the wiretapping program approved by Mr. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks....
Well, that's the SECOND TIME in the SAME ARTICLE the New York Times LIED!!!
But they are to be believed on... what then?
White House officials said that the new emergency provisions applied only to foreign wiretapping, but Democratic officials said they interpreted the proposal to apply to domestic surveillance operations as well.... the bipartisan proposal marks a clear victory for the White House and the phone companies....
“No matter how they spin it, this is still immunity,” said Kevin Bankston, a senior lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a pro-privacy group that is a plaintiff suing over the wiretapping program. “It’s not compromise; it’s pure theater.”If you want to read the DemocraPs crowing about the job they did, go here.
Also see: The New York Times Tool
The New York Times' Tool Continues to Lie About Bush's Spying
