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As the Senate prepares to consider legal immunity for telecommunications firms that aided the Bush administration's anti-terrorism spying program, one watchdog group is trying to draw attention to what it views as bigger-picture provisions of the underlying intelligence bill.

Center for Democracy and Technology President Leslie Harris told reporters Tuesday that telecom immunity has captured a great deal of press attention in recent weeks. But while that issue is important, she said it "is not necessarily, in the long run, the most substantive issue" in the debate about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

A flurry of pending lawsuits accuse companies like AT&T of breaking wiretapping and privacy laws by monitoring telephone calls and e-mails without permission of the secret court created by the law, known as FISA.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he plans to bring to the floor as early as Thursday a bill approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee that includes retroactive protections for the telecom firms. A Judiciary Committee bill without the immunity likely will be offered as a substitute, CDT staffers said.

The group said it believes both measures fall short of a House-passed version that CDT policy watchers Jim Dempsey and Gregory Nojeim said strikes a better balance between security and civil liberties interests. The center does, however, back the Senate Judiciary bill.

On Monday, Judiciary ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania introduced a new measure that would replace the government for the carriers as defendants in any litigation over spying. The bill, S. 2402, would protect the companies while the lawsuits continue.

"The litigation ought to go forward as is, and Congress ought to adopt a cap on damages -- no substitution, no indemnification, no immunity," Nojeim said. Specter's bill has been placed on the agenda for Judiciary's Thursday business meeting.

He said the most critical question is who ultimately authorizes the overarching spying program. Some have called for the intelligence court to issue a blanket order for the surveillance, and others want to give full control to the attorney general and director of national intelligence.

The House and Senate Judiciary versions would require a full court order when a "significant purpose" of international surveillance is monitoring a person in the United States. The Senate Intelligence bill lacks that provision, Nojeim said.

He added that the Senate Judiciary bill also "cuts off" the argument by President Bush that the congressional authorization for use of military force, which was approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, implicitly permitted warrantless surveillance.

In a Monday speech, Bush urged Congress to ensure that "our intelligence professionals can continue to monitor terrorist communications" by making permanent a temporary but hotly contested intelligence bill that Congress passed in August.

The statute expires Feb. 1, but "the threat from the terrorists does not expire," Bush said, slamming efforts by some lawmakers to block the immunity provision. "Congress must stop this obstruction and make certain our national security professionals do not lose a critical tool for keeping our country safe," he said.

COMMENTS

• Well put, K D. I appreciate someone else who understands the impact of the PATRIOT Act implementation and the precarious place we currently find ourselves in. I no longer feel like John crying out in the wilderness. Tip off Posted December 10, 2007 4:03 PM
• Dan, all of the investigations into the KKK and Anti-abortionist were conducted in accordance with the FISA or the cases were thrown out. All anyone is asking is that the current administration obey the laws of this country and maintain the checks and balances put in place by our founding fathers. I have no doubt that many of them would not tolerate many of the things that this administration has done over the past six years. A few of them may have even found themselves at Guantanamo. Jefferson also wrote in his famous letter to William Smith that “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion.” “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.” But I certainly don’t condone any kind of violent revolution. Our government or at least those in elected office must find their true place again and their sense of service. Lawmakers have lost the concept that they serve by the grace of the people, not the other way around. It is the citizenry that is sacred, not the government. Most of these laws that have been put in place in the name of patriotism are a disgrace to our country. There is no Patriotism in these Acts. There is no liberty is those laws. These are only the fears of small minded people and the manipulations of the exploiters. My greatest fear is not of some crazed individuals who wish to lash out at the establishment. My greatest fear is after fighting so long and so hard against the oppression and tyranny of the Soviet Union and their like that now, so soon after their fall, we may have become them. K D Posted December 7, 2007 1:44 PM
• I agree with Thomas Jefferson, and Leslie. LeRoy Posted December 5, 2007 4:55 PM