Reply #59: Funny. [View All]

I've been doing my "homework" on this for the better part of the day. I found the ACLU letter reasoned, balanced and excellently argued...but it was focused on that one area of concern alone - validly so - and offered little serious complaint about the majority of the bill. In fact, the letter specifically praised most of the bill:

This bill is better than the so-called Protect America Act: here are the areas where the ACLU has seen real improvement.

· Overseen by the court. Re-iterates that FISA is the go-to court

· Requires six-month audit and a database to go to Congress for review.

· Telecom companies are not granted immunity from illegal activity in this draft of the bill.

· The scope of the searching has been narrowed to “foreign affairs intelligence and improvement over a more broad definition in the so-called Protect America Act.

Their letter failed to note that the bill also requires the Justice Department to reveal the details of all electronic surveillance conducted without court orders since 9/11.

That's pretty damned huge.

So is getting back FISA court oversight...And, yeah, that blocks Cheney from ordering NSA to tap all the phones of all the staffers on all the Democratic campaigns, so they can record and transcribe strategy tele-conferences, etc...and I think the Bush administration's desire to do just that (and more) was the main reason why they've been trying to circumvent the FISA court.

Some more background:

Conyers: "I'm Proud" of Dem Surveillance Bill
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004411.php

Good Kos post: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/9/105935/112

More links from ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/house-introduces-new-fisa-legislation/

Summary of the bill:
http://thinkprogress.org/restore-act-summary/

The ACLU is quite correct. But this bill isn't finished yet; it must be reconciled with a Senate version that hasn't been written down yet, which gives the ACLU and everyone else time to make the case against vague open-ended warrant requirements.

And the rest of the bill is good.