World-News

CounterPunch
by Phillip Doe

07/08/08

Jonathan Swift, the great Irish political writer and satirist, is not alone in observing that great nations rarely fall from outside threats or attack. More often they decline and fall from internal corruption. The Congress is deaf to this warning it appears, for last week they passed legislation that is advertised as reforming FISA...

http://counterpunch.org/doe07082008.html



The new FISA compromise: It’s worse than you think

Cato Institute
by Timothy B. Lee

07/07/08

The 114-page bill was pushed through the House so quickly that there was no real time to debate its many complex provisions. This may explain why the telecom immunity provision has received so much attention in the media: it is much easier to explain to readers not familiar with the intricacies of surveillance law than the other provisions. But as important as the immunity issue is, the legislation also makes many prospective changes to surveillance law that will profoundly impact our privacy rights for years to come. Specifically, the new legislation dramatically expands the government’s ability to wiretap without meaningful judicial oversight, by redefining ‘oversight’ so that the feds can drag their feet on getting authorization almost indefinitely. It also gives the feds unprecedented new latitude in selecting eavesdropping targets, latitude that could be used to collect information on non-terrorist-related activities like P2P copyright infringement and online gambling. In short, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 opens up loopholes so large that the feds could drive a truck loaded down with purloined civil liberties through it. So the telecom immunity stuff is just the smoke; let’s take a look at the fire...

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9530


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Finance, favors and FISA

ANP follows the money trail to find out how telecom dollars influence Congressmen.
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1858

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ACLU Will Challenge FISA Bill in Court

Nick Juliano, of Raw Story: "As the Senate voted to endorse a Bush-administration backed plan to expand its surveillance authority and grant retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated warrantless wiretapping, the American Civil Liberties Union unveiled plans to challenge the new law in court. 'This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,' said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project."

http://www.truthout.org/article/aclu-will-challenge-fisa-bill-court

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Stop the New FISA
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/11/10276/

FISA: Bush Signed. The ACLU sued
http://groups.google.de/group/archive_news/t/25827fdd4b954102?hl=en



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=FISA
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=telecoms
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=surveillance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=wiretapping
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=eavesdropping
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civil+liberties
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=ACLU
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nick+Juliano
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jameel+Jaffer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Timothy+B.+Lee
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+Hedges