« Apple Fixes Dopey Firewall Language | Main | House Passes Immunity-Free Bill »
November 15, 2007
FISA Refit Emerges from Senate Committee with No Telco Immunity
CNN: Committee passes surveillance laws update in face of veto threat:
"One of the key changes approved by the [Senate Judiciary] committee would make clear that the FISA law is the exclusive authority for approving warrants for electronic surveillance.
"The full Senate still must approve the bill.
"The committee Thursday also decided to let the full Senate decide the controversial question of whether to grant retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that cooperated with the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program, The Associated Press reported." [emph. mine -mph]
Reports of a "stunningly unexpected win" for civil liberties groups are nice to read, but who thinks the full Senate is going to approve anything without immunity?
Meanwhile, the bill coming out of the Intelligence Committee does have immunity written in. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has the prerogative to reconcile the two bills before putting them up for vote.
Previously:
- Finding an Alternative to Telecom Immunity
- Verizon Says It Handed Over Customer Data Hundreds of Times
- Congress Urged to Shut Up and Make With the Telco Immunity
- Updated Followup: Democrats Introduce Surveillance Bill Rewrite Sans Retroactive Telco Immunity
- Some Coverage on the Telco Spying Immunity Campaign
- Telcos Scrambling for Wiretapping Immunity
Tags: congress, telecoms, wiretaps
Posted by mhall at 8:53 PM | Add Comment
Leave a comment