[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] VP Cheney makes strong pitch for telecom immunity

[Bill Totten]

by Ryan Paul

http://arstechnica.com (January 24 2008)

United States Vice President Dick Cheney gave a policy address yesterday
to the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank. During
his speech, Cheney endorsed proposals to expand the scope of warrantless
electronic surveillance, called for such programs to be made permanent,
and advocated granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications
service providers that were complicit in potentially illegal government
wiretapping activities.

Cheney's speech articulated the Bush administration's position on
surveillance issues in anticipation of the imminent expiration of the
Protect America Act, a temporary surveillance bill that was enacted in
response to a ruling from the secretive Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court (FISC) that reportedly reined in intelligence-
gathering activity. The Protect America Act broadly expanded federal
surveillance power and eliminated many requirements for judicial
oversight, making it possible for the executive branch and some of its
direct subordinates to authorize warrantless interception of
communications between people "reasonably believed to be outside the
United States".

Cheney framed this policy as an effort to modernize the FISA process and
is calling for Congress to make permanent those provisions of the
Protect America Act. Cheney also asserts that domestic
telecommunications service providers who cooperate with government
requests for information should be granted legal immunity for their
potentially unlawful behavior.

"First, our administration feels strongly that an updated FISA law
should be made permanent, not merely extended again with another sunset
provision. We can always revisit a law that's on the books - that's part
of the job of the elected branches of government. But there is no sound
reason to pass critical legislation like the Protect American Act and
slap an expiration date on it. Fighting the war on terror is a long-term
enterprise that requires long-term, institutional changes. The challenge
to the country has not expired over the last six months. It won't expire
any time soon - and we should not write laws that pretend otherwise",
said Cheney during his speech. "Second, the law should uphold an
important principle: that those who assist the government in tracking
terrorists should not be punished with lawsuits. We're asking Congress
to update FISA and especially to extend this protection to
communications providers alleged to have given such assistance any time
after September 11 2001. This is an important consideration, because
some providers are facing dozens of lawsuits right now. Why? Because
they are believed to have aided the US government in the effort to
intercept international communications of al Qaeda-related individuals".

Critics of the government surveillance program note that telecom
involvement in warrantless wiretapping likely violates section 222 of
the Communications Act, which prohibits disclosure or provision of
access to customer network information. The legality of the program,
however, is in dispute because the FCC has declined to investigate, the
telecom companies have refused to disclose information about the program
to Congress, and the FISC ruling regarding the legality of the program
is classified and remains a guarded secret.

The Bush administration has demanded retroactive immunity grants for the
telecom companies and has threatened to veto any surveillance bills that
do not include said provisions. The telecoms themselves have also been
vigorously lobbying for immunity. There are allegations that the telecom
companies have attempted to use political leverage to obtain the
immunity grants, but the veracity of those allegations cannot be
evaluated yet because the DoJ has - in clear violation of the Freedom of
Information Act - been stonewalling the EFF's formal requests for
information regarding interaction between telecoms and politicians.

Concerns have been expressed by critics that the kind of surveillance
made possible by the Protect America Act is only the beginning and that
basic privacy rights will be further eroded as the government continues
to push the boundaries of law. Indeed, Cheney also passingly endorses a
proposal made by intelligence chief Mick McConnell that reaches far
beyond the current FISA dispute and would enable the government to
intercept virtually all network traffic in the United States, an
unprecedented level of surveillance.

In light of consistent abuses of basic surveillance powers granted to
federal law enforcement agencies, it's not a stretch to believe that
more secretive surveillance programs would also be rife with abuse in
the absence of more direct transparency and oversight.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080124-vp-cheney-makes-strong-pitch-for-telecom-immunity.html

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