rssFISA Debate: Immunity for Whom?
Monday, February 25, 2008 at 10:04 am
- 6 Comments
Illustration by: Matt Mahurin
The debate over how to modernize the nation’s international spying laws in the midst of its so-called war on terror was stepped up a notch last Friday, after intelligence officials warned that some phone companies are refusing now to cooperate fully because Congress has yet to grant them immunity for potentially illegal cooperation in the past.
“We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to act,” Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell wrote to House leaders Friday. “Because of this uncertainty, some partners have reduced cooperation.”
But as the Washington Post reported Saturday, all the companies have agreed to participate fully in the program. That development begs the question: If the companies are all cooperating without retroactive immunity, how necessary is retroactive immunity to keeping the nation safe in the future? Some legal experts say the immunity provision was written less to protect the nation and more to protect the telecom industry from expensive litigation — not to mention protecting the White House from embarrassing revelations about the targets of the spying program.
As Bruce Ackerman, a law professor at Yale University, said last week: “The question of retroactive immunity cannot conceivably affect the future actions of the telephone companies. It is simply illogical for Director McConnell to claim otherwise. If we want to maximize the cooperation of telephone companies in the future, the way to do this is to grant them future immunity, not immunity for past actions. The Administration somehow forgets that time moves in only one direction.”
6 Comments
Comment posted February 25, 2008 @ 10:35 am
Would that be a "timely conundrum" of concentric algorithmic distortions? Times marches in circular illogic. Yeah, what he said! You know cause, "the administration somehow forgets that time moves only in one direction."
Comment posted February 25, 2008 @ 10:32 am
Oh yeah, the ‘Commander-in-carnage’ issued another one of those pesky "Executive Order" gizmos last week and they’ve hired Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman to work the WAYBACK MACHINE and they can now summarily "tinker" with the space/time continuum and work all manners of evil to their greedy ends. Darn it all, one could have thought that Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman would’ve never been able to be bought. We’re screwed now!
Comment posted February 25, 2008 @ 10:24 am
"We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress’ failure to act." Thus sayeth the Mukasey and the McConnell. Ummm, would that be like the "intelligence" that got Amerika lied into the Iraq war? Did the Mukasey and the McConnell TORTURE the wrong darn Muslim? Are the Mukasey and the McConnell comprehensively STUPID or what? Okay so, if some ditsy lost Amerikan soul commits war crimes and well you know, on account of some daft lie told them by Amerika’s ‘Commander-in-carnage’, and then wanders the Halls of Congressional Corruption searching for "retroactive immunity" for war crimes prosecution (insert the taking of one deep breath here), and then can’t find that "retroactive immunity" and are ‘we the people’ somehow supposed to feel sorry for war crimes committing chump? Criminy, the telecos/special interest pimps can’t get their "whores" in Congress to spread those congressional legs for more ‘tang’? Wow, that’s tough isn’t it. Isn’t it? Congress and those telecos/special interest pimps NEED to take that long walk off the proverbial short peer and experience that nifty waterboarding effect up close and personal. Wow the Mukasey and the McConnell TORTURED the wrong darn Muslim. It just so figures!
Comment posted February 25, 2008 @ 4:24 am
"We have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress' failure to act." Thus sayeth the Mukasey and the McConnell. Ummm, would that be like the "intelligence" that got Amerika lied into the Iraq war? Did the Mukasey and the McConnell TORTURE the wrong darn Muslim? Are the Mukasey and the McConnell comprehensively STUPID or what? Okay so, if some ditsy lost Amerikan soul commits war crimes and well you know, on account of some daft lie told them by Amerika's 'Commander-in-carnage', and then wanders the Halls of Congressional Corruption searching for "retroactive immunity" for war crimes prosecution (insert the taking of one deep breath here), and then can't find that "retroactive immunity" and are 'we the people' somehow supposed to feel sorry for war crimes committing chump? Criminy, the telecos/special interest pimps can't get their "whores" in Congress to spread those congressional legs for more 'tang'? Wow, that's tough isn't it. Isn't it? Congress and those telecos/special interest pimps NEED to take that long walk off the proverbial short peer and experience that nifty waterboarding effect up close and personal. Wow the Mukasey and the McConnell TORTURED the wrong darn Muslim. It just so figures!
Comment posted February 25, 2008 @ 4:32 am
Oh yeah, the 'Commander-in-carnage' issued another one of those pesky "Executive Order" gizmos last week and they've hired Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman to work the WAYBACK MACHINE and they can now summarily "tinker" with the space/time continuum and work all manners of evil to their greedy ends. Darn it all, one could have thought that Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman would've never been able to be bought. We're screwed now!
Comment posted February 25, 2008 @ 4:35 am
Would that be a "timely conundrum" of concentric algorithmic distortions? Times marches in circular illogic. Yeah, what he said! You know cause, "the administration somehow forgets that time moves only in one direction."
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