House OKs Spy Bill, Rejects Telco Immunity

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March 14, 2008

House OKs Spy Bill, Rejects Telco Immunity

“The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives defied President George W. Bush on Friday and passed an anti-terrorism spy bill that permits lawsuits against phone companies.

“But the 213-197 vote was far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a promised veto by Bush. He has demanded that any telecommunication company that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program secretly begun after the September 11 attacks receive retroactive immunity.

“The battle over whether to shield companies has been a key reason why the House and Senate have been unable to agree on a bill to replace a law that expired last month that expanded U.S. authority to track enemy targets without a court order.

“It has also prompted Republicans to accuse Democrats of undermining national security while Democrats have accused Bush and his fellow Republicans of election-year fear mongering.”

(Link)

Analysis from Glenn Greenwald:

“It is, of course, true that this bill will have a hard time passing the Senate (though if even most House Blue Dogs were persuaded to support this bill, why can’t most Democratic Senators who previously voted for the Rockefeller bill be persuaded?). It’s also true that even if it did pass the Senate, the President will veto it, and there won’t be enough votes to override the veto. So this bill won’t become law, but that doesn’t matter.

“The reality is that the best possible outcome here is nothing -- we lived quite well for 30 years under FISA and if no new bill is passed, we will continue to live under FISA. FISA grants extremely broad eavesdropping powers to the President and the FISA court virtually never interferes with any eavesdropping activities. And the only ‘fix’ to FISA that is even arguably necessary -- allowing eavesdropping on foreign-to-foreign calls without warrants -- has the support of virtually everyone in Congress and could be easily passed as a stand-alone measure.”

(Link)