Republicans, Senator Bond, Rep. Hoekstra and Rep. Smith, have authored an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal, Hard of Hearing, regarding FISA and the need for telco immunity. Unfortunately, you probably won't be shocked at their opinion of a certain constitutional amendment.
The article is a reply to yesterday's WaPo piece by Sens. Rockafeller and Leahy and Reps. Reyes and Conyers. Predictably, the Republicans tell us we are less safe from terrorists upon the expiration of the Protect America Act. But some statements really caught my attention.
although it has a few work-around-provisions, such as allowing intelligence agencies to conduct surveillance for up to 72 hours without a warrant, FISA ultimately requires those agencies to jump through too many legal hurdles. Those include the Fourth Amendment's "probable cause" requirements, protections never intended for suspected terrorists' communications that are routed through the U.S.
Oh, that pesky Fourth Amendment, always getting in the way. I guess what we see as our 'right to privacy' is really just a 'legal hurdle'. Of course, the article concedes that the vast majority of warrants are approved - they just lament on how much extra work it is for intelligence agencies to act within the law.
we need our agencies to be able to intercept a far greater number of communications -- notably those of foreign terrorists -- than can be justified under the Fourth Amendment.
Wow. We need to expand spying beyond what's justified by the 4th Amendment - notably communications of foreign terrorists. WTF, notably? Care to explain the warrantless wiretapping that needs to be done on non-terrorists? Because we all know these are the privacy infractions that the telcos want immunity for. These are the excessive, non-material wiretaps that can't get approved through FISA courts. I doubt Al-Qaeda is planning to sue AT&T for privacy violations.
Its all right there in the coulumn. The Republicans want to spy on Americans without warrants and they need immunity for the telcos to comply.