Bush surveillance law could live on
p2pnet news Politics:- | Freedom:- With, in the background, Sweden’s introduction of shocking new laws which’ll allow its military to spy on citizens, US leaders, “agreed to the most sweeping rewrite of U.S. domestic-spying powers in three decades, ensuring that much of the controversial surveillance operation created by President Bush in secret will outlast his administration,” says the Wall Street Journal.
Swedish journalists call their country’s new bill, which was compared to Bush administration’s, “surveillance measures which side-stepped the laws in the name of combating terrorism,” the, “final nail in the coffin of democracy”.
Now, in America, “The surveillance powers may end up being a rare survivor of the administration’s post-9/11 redrawing of national-security law,” says the WSJ.
“The agreement extends the government’s ability to eavesdrop on espionage and terrorism suspects — and effectively provides a legal escape hatch for AT&T, Verizon Communications and other telecom firms,” says the Washington Post, going on:
“Aside from granting a type of legal immunity to the telecom companies, the agreement allows the government to conduct “emergency wiretaps” without court orders on Americans for up to week if the information is sensitive, fleeting and in the interest of national security.
“If the agreement is approved, observers say it could count as the most radical change in the country’s surveillance law in decades.”
Says the Swamp >>>
The National Security Agency’s eavesdropping, which was launched without warrants from the secretive Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act courts that grant the government authority for domestic wiretapping, has led to an overhaul of FISA, which was enacted after earlier abuses in domestic surveillance.
Along the way, Bush has demanded legal immunity for AT&T and others that have assisted the NSA in this surveillance, with telecom companies facing some 40 lawsuits over their cooperation. House and Senate negotiators have reached a deal that should deliver Bush a new FISA with immunity in the package.
“My Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General tells me that this is a good bill,” it has Bush saying today, adding:
“The enemy who attacked us on September the 11th is determined to strike this country again. It’s vital that our intelligence community has the ability to learn who the terrorists are talking to, what they’re saying, and what they are planning.”
News of the domestic spying program, “set off a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers and civil liberties advocates and contributed to the administration’s failure to persuade Congress to pass a renewed version of the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law,” says the Post.
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.Stumble It!
shocking new laws – Sweden’s new Big Brother spy law, June 20, 2008
Wall Street Journal – Deal Set on Domestic Spy Powers, June 20, 2008
final nail – Criticism Mounts Against Swedish Surveillance Proposal, June 17, 2008
Washington Post – Wiretap Program Leaps Hurdle, June 20, 2008
Swamp – Bush: ‘Terrorist surveillance’ covered, June 20, 2008
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