Why the telecoms shouldn’t get immunity
The American Prospect
by Robert B. Reich
12/03/07
You’d think anyone who remembered J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and Nixon’s CIA, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 — let alone the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution — might be concerned about the government illegally snooping on Americans. But executives at the nation’s biggest telecoms — AT&T, Verizon, and others — didn’t blink an eye when the National Security Agency came knocking. You want records of domestic phone calls? Sure, help yourself! Emails? Yeah, we got tons. They’re yours! When word of this leaked out and the companies got sued by Americans who didn’t particularly like the idea of government rummaging through everything they said or wrote, the telecoms went to Congress and complained it wasn’t their fault. They deserve immunity from such lawsuits, they argue. They were only following orders. Congress is about to decide whether their argument holds water. It doesn’t...
http://tinyurl.com/3ax7cl
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=AT%26T
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Verizon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=National+Security+Agency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+B.+Reich
by Robert B. Reich
12/03/07
You’d think anyone who remembered J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI and Nixon’s CIA, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 — let alone the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution — might be concerned about the government illegally snooping on Americans. But executives at the nation’s biggest telecoms — AT&T, Verizon, and others — didn’t blink an eye when the National Security Agency came knocking. You want records of domestic phone calls? Sure, help yourself! Emails? Yeah, we got tons. They’re yours! When word of this leaked out and the companies got sued by Americans who didn’t particularly like the idea of government rummaging through everything they said or wrote, the telecoms went to Congress and complained it wasn’t their fault. They deserve immunity from such lawsuits, they argue. They were only following orders. Congress is about to decide whether their argument holds water. It doesn’t...
http://tinyurl.com/3ax7cl
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=AT%26T
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Verizon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=National+Security+Agency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+B.+Reich
rudkla - 4. Dez, 11:23
