| Immunity more important than security I think Bush said it all by saying he'd veto the bill if immunity wasn't provided.
Some folks on this forum seem to feel that the spying was only done when one party was on foreign soil (like the law says), but this wasn't true. It's everyone and still going on. Remember the way Martin Luther King and J.F.K. were spied on? (from EFF.org)
Here's USA Today in May of 2005: "National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth... For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others."
Here's The New York Times' Pulitzer-winning coverage in 2005: "As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telcom companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said."
And here's The Wall Street Journal in March of this year: "According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches ... The haul can include records of phone calls, email headers and destinations, data on financial transactions and records of Internet browsing."
Bush doesn't seem overly concerned about passing on the immense powers of his presidency to anyone else soon.
Add to it that if they heard about something illegal (medical marijuanna for example) you could be charged and found guilty but never know why - your lawyer and possibly the judge could gain access to the evidence. That right was given up with the Patriot Act. The FISA just gives approval for any method to collect information. |
