Sen. Ken Salazar's excuses: FISA/telco immunity up vote
Thu Feb 21, 2008 at 03:01:12 PM PDT
Sometimes I get interesting feedback on the calls and emails that I send to my Senators and Representatives.
Considering the heated nature of the FISA fight, it is interesting to see how the legislators that voted in favor of retroactive immunity and of legalizing the government's ability to spy on its citizens justify their votes.
In this case, as is probably often the case in controversial issues, Senator Ken Salazar provides some pretty weak rationales for his vote supporting the unmodified Senate version of FISA that passed in the upper house.
Let's journey through his excuse letter and evaluate the truthiness that abounds therein below.
And, here is Senator Salazar's letter excusing his vote for FISA:
Dear Prof Dave:
Thank you for contacting me with regard to S.2248, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act of 2007. I appreciate hearing from you.
As a U.S. Senator, my primary responsibilities are to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people. These responsibilities have guided me during the recent Senate debate on reforming and modernizing the rules governing America’s surveillance and intelligence-gathering system.
Ah, good thing Senator Salazar is "upholding the Constitution". Had he not told me, I would have been surprised and impressed that he was abiding by his oaths of office.
As you know, S.2248 passed the Senate on February 12, 2008 by a vote of 68-29. While I was disappointed the Senate did not adopt several amendments that would have gone further in strengthening civil liberties protections, I ultimately supported final passage of the bill.
Now we are getting to the meat of it. He supported the appropriate amendments, but because the negotiation with the Republicans (oh, so unfortunately) didn't allow for up or down votes for all of the amendments, (only the ones that would fail) he couldn't do anything more. Except vote for the bill as is, which is a Constitutional abomination. Funny how that all worked out.
I believe S.2248 gives intelligence officials the tools they need to pursue foreign threats, and, furthermore, institutes stronger oversight mechanisms to preserve the privacy rights of American citizens.
What about the existing FISA court? Do they not already have the tools? Hmm, truthiness alert!
Specifically, S.2248:
• Declares that the FISA court is the sole authority for the approval of electronic surveillance procedures, in response to the Bush administration’s five-year warrantless surveillance program outside of FISA;
• Implements a six-year sunset of the program to allow Congress to evaluate how the new authorities are carried out;
• Requires FISA court approval of foreign targeting procedures for determining that the target of the surveillance is reasonably believed to be outside the United States;
• Grants the FISA court oversight of the "minimization" procedures governing the protection of the identities and private information of U.S. citizens incidentally collected during the monitoring of a foreign target;
• Requires FISA court approval, on an individual basis, of the targeting of Americans overseas based on the court’s review of whether there is probable cause to believe that the person is an agent of a foreign power;
• Requires the FISA court to provide Congress with judicial opinions and interpretations pertaining to the new surveillance program;
• Requires the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to assess overall compliance with targeting and minimization procedures and submit their findings every six months to the FISA court, as well as the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
Taken together, these reforms represent a significant improvement over previous FISA laws in terms of oversight and accountability.
Wow, sounds reasonable. Wait a minute... Where's the most important part? Where's the telecom immunity provisions that he sadly was forced to vote for?
During the debate, the Senate also addressed the issue of retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. As you may know, in the wake of the September 11th attacks, it is alleged that a number of telecommunications companies in the United States were asked by the National Security Agency (NSA) to turn over the personal data of their American customers for examination without a warrant. Subsequently, a number of Americans have filed lawsuits against these companies for violating their Fourth Amendment right to privacy.
S.2248 as reported to the full Senate provides narrowly circumscribed, retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies in question. In response to this, I cosponsored Senate Amendment 3858, which would have referred the lawsuits to the FISA Court for review. Under this approach, if the court determined that the companies acted in good faith and had a reasonable belief they were abiding by the law when they complied with the government’s requests, the lawsuits would have been thrown out of court; if not, they would have proceeded as planned. Unfortunately, this amendment did not garner enough support to be included in the final Senate bill.
Funny how that worked out. And you supported it, Senator Salazar, giving the Bush administration yet another get-out-of-jail-free card, allowing violation of the law and the Constitution.
S.2248 now awaits action in a House-Senate conference committee. Please rest assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as my colleagues and I continue work on this legislation.
Again, thank you for taking the time to share your views.
Sincerely,
Ken Salazar
United States Senator
Please do not respond to this email. To send another message please visit my website at http://salazar.senate.gov/... and fill out the webform for a prompt response. Thank you.
No, thank you so much for your truthy email updating me on your enablement of a criminal executive branch. Remind me to not forget your when re-election time comes - under the heading of primarying bad Democrats to get better performance for U.S. citizens instead of U.S. corporations.
Thankfully, the House seems to be letting this sorry piece of legislation expire. Letting Bush throw a temper tantrum is fun, and shows how little we should pay attention to him.
But, thank you so much Senator Ken Salazar! Hugs and kisses for your truthy email explaining your enablement of those who violate my rights! Make sure you keep sending me your fundraising letters!
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