The administration really doesn't want the people to know what the NSA was doing and who they were spying on with their warrantless wiretaps, to the extent that they will finally release the documents that the committee subpoenaed four months ago. The Intelligence Committee has already seen these documents, and they were possibly sufficiently convincing enough for all of the Dems on the committee, excepting Wyden and Feingold, to support the FISA bill coming out of Intelligence.
The White House has offered leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee access to legal documents related to the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program, senators said Thursday.
But Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said while the White House had offered the documents to both him and the panel’s ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, he was pushing for the entire committee to receive access to the documents. But he also said he would take advantage of the offer and review the documents.
As the entire Intelligence Committee, and staff, have seen the documents it seems ridiculous that the entire Judiciary Committee can't see them as well. But what's more ridiculous is the fact that the information be withheld from the American public forever, which is what telecom amnesty would mean. Retroactive amnesty for the telecoms wouldn't just let them off the hook, it would mean that the warrantless eavesdropping and illegal spying on Americans by the Bush administration would go unpunished and uninvestigated.
At this point, it's time to remember the words once again of Senator Frank Church. It was as a result of his committee's investigations into the illegal wiretapping and surveillance of Americans by the NSA that the FISA court was created.
A basic tenet of our democracy is that the people must be told of the mistakes of their government so that they may have the opportunity to correct them.... Revealing the truth will strengthen our political system, which depends upon an informed public, and will help reestablish the trust of the American people in the candor of their government.... Means are as important as ends. Crisis makes it tempting to ignore the wise restraints that make men free; but each time we do so, each time the means we use are wrong, our inner strength, the strength which makes us free, is lessened. [pp. 104-5, Father and Son: A personal biography of Senator Frank Church of Idaho, Forrest Church, 1985]
The American people deserve to know what has been done by this government and by the telecoms doing its bidding. Granting the telecoms amnesty for their illegal activities will likely mean that that piece of our extremely destructive history is never explored and never punished.
If you haven't already signed the petition to Senator Reid and the Judiciary Committee, or called members of the Committee to express your opposition to telecom amnesty, do it now.