In the U.S. of A., we are all suspects now

[Echo In Light]

In the U.S. of A., we are all suspects now
By ROBYN BLUMNER, Times Columnist
Published November 18, 2007

The administration's demand that Congress shield the telecommunications industry from lawsuits for aiding in the systematic warrantless wiretapping of Americans has far less to do with protecting national security than its own exposed flanks.

Make no mistake, telecom immunity is about keeping a flagrantly illegal program from public scrutiny and maintaining the illusion that the president ordered a small, precision surveillance program, when the opposite is true.

After the New York Times unearthed the administration's warrantless domestic wiretapping program in December 2005, President Bush assured the nation that what he had authorized the National Security Agency to do was very limited.

In his weekly radio address, Bush said he had ordered the NSA "to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al-Qaida and related terrorist organizations." And he promised that "before we intercept these communications, the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks."

The president was essentially saying that only Americans in overseas communication with known terror suspects would have their privacy invaded.

But as with so much of what Bush says, this does not pass the pants-on-fire test.
More:
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/18/Opinion/In_the_US_of_A__we_ar.shtml

[mrfixit]

1. Kucinich on Telecom Immunity:

http://www.kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=76693

“I object to any immunity for telecommunications companies and demand a full accounting of these companies’ involvement to Congress and to the American public,” Kucinich said. “When corporations cooperate with the government to strip people of their Constitutional rights, that is a text book description of fascism. There must not be any place in America for this type of conduct.”


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