The fight to ensure that our Democratic Congress continues to hold its ground and refuses to take Jay Rockefeller's unwise advice to roll over for the Bush Administration on telecom amnesty has been of central importance for many of us in the progressive community.  Kossacks mcjoan and Kagro X have both done an outstanding job keeping this and the intimately related FISA issues front and center in the netroots, and groups like the Courage Campaign have done well in making sure that progressive activists continue to lobby decision-makers to do the right thing.

Confirming Kagro's theory that every day without telco amnesty brings yet another potential revelation about how this administration has warped and politicized intelligence gathering, a new angle has emerged. As reported Kossack baldheadeddork, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio's conviction on insider trading.

They not only overturned the conviction, but took the highly unusual step of ordering not just a new trial, but a new judge.

The two judges who voted to overturn the conviction cited U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham's exclusion of testimony by a defense expert.

"Mr. Nacchio appeals, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to convict him, that the jury was improperly instructed, and that the trial judge incorrectly excluded evidence — expert testimony and classified information — important to his defense," the decision states.

"We agree that the improper exclusion of his expert witness merits a new trial, but we conclude that the evidence before the District Court was sufficient for the government to try him again without violating the double jeopardy clause."

The expert testimony and excluded evidence centers around Nacchio's claim that Qwest was pressured by the government in early 2001--months before the attacks of 9/11--to participate in the warrantless wiretapping of Qwest customers. Qwest is one of few companies to turn down the NSA's request. Nacchio attempted to depose witnesses and to present classified information bolstering this claim, but Judge Edward Nottingham denied this line of defence.

The government's insider trading case was based on Nacchio's selling of $52 million of stock in the spring of 2001 when internal documents from Qwest were showing that the companies finances were shaky. Part of Nacchio's defense would have included classified information that would bolster Nacchio's claim that he was upbeat about Qwest's financial situation because it was about to receive some lucrative, secret government contracts.

"This is a setback, not a defeat," U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid said in a statement. "The good news is the Circuit Court said our trial team presented sufficient evidence to convict Mr. Nacchio of insider-trading,"

He added that his office is considering its options "in consultation with the Department of Justice."

The question is, will this Department of Justice pursue a retrial and a whole new discovery process about the NSA's warrantless wiretapping scheme--a discovery process they are doing everything in their power to stop by bestowing retroactive amnesty on AT&T and the other telcos that played along.

The Court of Appeals has thrown out the convictions of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio and ordered a new trial with a new judge.

CNBC reports that the convictions were overturned because Nacchio was prohibited by the presiding judge and national security laws from presenting a proper defense. This is a stunning rebuke of a case that is at the heart of the illegal wiretap program.

Just broke on CNBC - no wire stories links yet. Will update.

UPDATE: Confirmation from CBS4 in Denver

A federal appeals court ordered a new trial for former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio on Monday.

The court said there was an improper exclusion of Nacchio's expert witness merits a new trial.

The court concluded that the evidence before the district court was sufficient for the government to try him again without violating the Double Jeopardy Clause.

The court ordered the trial be presided over by a different judge.

Ha ha. RNC press release:

To help meet its goal of holding the most tech-savvy convention in history, the Committee on Arrangements (COA) for the 2008 Republican National Convention today announced that Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) will serve as the Official Communications Provider for the Sept. 1-4 event.

If you recall, Republicans have been tripping all over themselves to protect those "patriotic" telecoms that broke the law in order to spy on your communications on behalf of Bush and Company. Qwest was the lone holdout of the big telecoms that upheld the law and refused to play along, hence, by extension, supposedly "unpatriotic".

Yet here they are, rewarding Qwest with a contract to wire their convention.

More evidence that the GOP's overheated rhetoric is nothing more than that -- overheated rhetoric.

[Note to Daily Kos friends: We’ve been talking about FISA a lot. I’ve decided that I need to do more to get the conversation to friends and folks in my community who are not political junkies like me. I’m in debt to you for your insights and accurate reporting, especially McJoan, so you’re not likely to find anything new here. I’ll be posting this on my blog site and emailing the link to all of the friends I think might be open to talking to their family and friends. I will be grateful for any corrections that need to be made or for other talking points not mentioned. Thanks! Milo]

If you haven’t been talking to your friends about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) already, you may have an opportunity over the next few days while Congress is in recess. If your friends don’t raise the issue, perhaps you should. As citizens of what we consider a free country, we need to be talking about this issue among ourselves and with our elected representatives in Washington.

Day four in our five-part series on the most-overlooked stories of the FISA debate.

The NSA, phone companies and government are in deeper than we knew

In December, The New York Times ran a story about the administration and National Security Agency’s domestic spying partnerships with certain phone companies. The story elaborated on the "extensive but uneasy partnership" that exists between our government and the telecoms.

As we ring in the new legislative year, the ACLU thought it would be appropriate to have a little countdown of our own. The FISA Amendments Act of 2007 hits the Senate floor once again next week, and what better time to revisit some of the best and most overlooked FISA-related news stories?

We’ll be posting one a day until the Senate returns on January 22nd in an effort to make sure these stories get the attention and follow-through they deserved.

Without further ado, our first Great Unsung Hit of the FISA Debate is:

How would you react if I argued that we are now living in a dictatorship?  The signs are there:  The admininstration has defied the 2006 election mandate on Iraq, it has vetoed a broadly bi-partisan child health insurance bill.  It continues to delay demands for action on global warming, it conducts warrantless wiretaps, it rules by Presidential fiat and excessive secrecy, and now it is about to take perhaps the most blatant act of defiance of the public will yet:

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to ram through new regulations allowing further consolidation of media ownership by newspapers and television stations.  

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is defying four years of massive public opposition, and now both houses of Congress – despite clear face-to-face warnings to delay the vote.  In so doing, he has ignored his Commission's own research and treated public input as a sham.  Details below the jump:

Do you want the terrorists to win? What do you think has prevented another American soil terrorist attack? Obviously it was the NSA wiretapping. To go back to the quaint Bill of Rights only plays into the Islamofacists hands. To think wiretapping should be illegal would be an example of pre-9/11 thinking. We live in a new world (cough).

Besides, the telecommunications corporations say they have nothing to hide. They haven't done anything illegal. Of course, to prove this, they will have to endure several unfounded frivolous lawsuits. The mere allegation and bad press that they will have to go through will sour their stock price and interfere with the all-mighty free market. Any good American would want to protect their balanced 401k mutual fund as well as prevent another terrorist attack.

The average American thinks that the domestic wiretapping controversy only popped up after the feds started spying after 9/11, right? So how's about it Dodd, Obama and Feingold? Will you release the FISA hold if it only pertained to post 9/11 spying?

(the flip is different, I promise)

Glen Greemwald has just posted here that it looks like Reid plans to ignore Dodd's hold on the FISA bill that would give the telecom's amnesty for violating the law to spy on Americans (and others).

Here is the phone number for Reid's office if you would like to share your views of Reid's disgusting and treacherous perfidy:

(202) 224-3542

You can email Reid here: http://reid.senate.gov/...

But email is less effective than a call.

Last night's airing of the PBS Frontline documentary "Cheney's Law" could not have come at a more fitting time.  As Congress begins debate on a new FISA bill and the issue of immunity for telecommunications firms, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey begins confirmation hearings in the Senate.  But as Frontline reminded us last night, the architects of the Bush administration's NSA domestic surveillance program believe FISA itself is unconstitutional.

When someone asks you to give them an example of the Executive Branch of our government abusing the privileges granted them to protect the public, be sure to point to this latest and stunning example by the Bush Administration:

Three telecommunications companies have declined to tell Congress whether they gave U.S. intelligence agencies access to Americans' phone and computer records without court orders, citing White House objections and national security.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell "formally invoked the state secrets privilege to prevent AT&T from either confirming or denying" any details about intelligence programs, AT&T general counsel Wayne Watts wrote in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Qwest and Verizon also declined to answer, saying the federal government has prohibited them from providing information, discussing or referring to any classified intelligence activities.

continued after the jump...

Hi there.

I live in Los Angeles and I am going to be moving to a new home in a different part of Los Angeles next month and I will need to order telephone service.  I am currently with AT&T, but I do not want to continue with them because of their desire to spy on me.  I called Qwest and they don't offer service in Los Angeles.  I was thinking about switching to Verizon, but today's news that they also having been spying on their customers, like AT&T, has made me very depressed.

What company should I use now?  Is there any telephone service that does not spy on their customers that operates in Los Angeles?

Thanks for whatever advice you can provide.

-Derek

P.S.  I just wanted to make it clear that I am wondering about landline/DSL phone companies and not mobile phone companies.  Thanks.

The lawlessness of the rulers of our country is on full display as the Congress considers whether to grant immunity to the nation's telephone companies for their blatant violations of the law (with the exception of Qwest) by providing the government with warrant-less access to untold numbers of telephone records.

By rulers, I mean the multi-million-dollar salaried CEOs of some of the world's largest telecoms, the leadership of the Democratic House and Senate, and of course, President Bush and the executive branch, especially the so-called Justice Department.

Are we all Good Americans?

Let's say you're the CEO of a telecom, an industry where the federal government doles out multi-billion dollar contracts. And the nice man from the government walks in to your office and says, oh by the way, we need to do some wiretaps right now, we don't have time to get warrants, and thank you very much.

Oh boy this is exciting.  We've got yet another opportunity to see an upcoming Sternly Worded Letter (SWL) written by one of our Congressional leaders.  This time it's Judiciary Committee Chairman Conyers who's setting the stage.  Conyers wrote a letter to DNI Mike McConnell and Ass. AG for National Security Kenneth Wainstein in regards to the illegal wiretaps conducted by the Bush Administration and the telecom industries.  This all came to light with the court filings from Qwest CEO Joseph Naccio spilling the beans on the government's actions and subsequent retaliation on Qwest for Nacchio refusing to play along with the illegal activities.

This nice request by Conyers will most assuredly be ignored by the Administration, just like all other past requests.  Only then will we soon get to see the FIERCE PENMANSHIP from our party Seriously requesting information from Bush in a harsh SWL.  

PART II: The Great Bandwidth Rip-Off

Yesterday, we covered the basics of how the NSA scoops up huge amounts of data about U.S. citizens without warrants.   That’s a violation of the 1978 FISA Law, but since before 9/11, the Bush Administration has been doing it, anyway.  See, http://www.dailykos.com/... ;  http://www.dailykos.com/...

This installment goes into more technical and historical detail about how the Bush Administration carries out warrantless spying on U.S. citizens.

The irony of this story is that terrorists and serious criminals know full well how to avoid detection and can work around the elaborate and incredibly expensive technological "fixes" that have been imposed since 2000.  

What seems to have actually happened is another grand theft in the name of computer security, a replay of the Y2K "crisis", only with extra terror added.

More below . . .

CALEA – Now, Even Starbucks is Required to Spy on You

While the wiretap law that’s supposed to protect Americans from warrantless government wiretaps, FISA, is now widely known, few have heard of the other major domestic surveillance law, the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

CALEA makes it mandatory that all telephone companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and even universities and coffee shop chains that offer public internet access install equipment that makes it possible for the government to track and record your calls and surfing habits, or pay an outside firm to do the same thing.  That law initially came with a half billion dollar incentive to cooperate for the telephone companies which had, in the early 1990s, resisted a law that required they install bugging equipment at all their switching centers as an unfunded mandate and very much unwanted business expense.

But, that was so pre-911.  As of May 14 this year, once you log on to your Internet provider or use your laptop at a university or other institution that offers a broadcast wireless network, federal law now requires that the network carrier record your terminal's unique IP address, you know, the one assigned to each and every computer that accesses the Worldwide Web.

In case anyone's missed it, it now seems abundantly clear that the Bush Administration began paying AT&T and other major telecommunications companies to ignore FISA and commence surveillance of our domestic phone and internet communications only days after Bush took office in 2001, and well before the 9/11 terror attacks.
Qwest, the only telcom which threw up the bulls#!t flag and refuse to participate, immediately became the subject of over-the-top federal criminal prosecutions of its chief executives. These prosecutions are now beginning to unravel, and Qwest's defense attorneys (with the apparent tacit approval of the Federal Judiciary) are beginning to assemble a digital paper trail of both the Dirty Deeds themselves and the inevitable coverup.

Lookie here