Deja Vu, All Over Again

Where were we last time? A temporary blocking of the PAA Extension w/retroactive immunity for the telcos in the Senate. Since then, the Senate once again caved to the Bushies' demands for unchecked surveillance authority and passed the permanent extension w/the retroactive immunity 12 February and it was expected the House would soon follow suit. Yet 14 February the House blocked a 21-day extension (w/o the retroactive immunity) which GW had already promised to veto (because of the missing retroactive immunity) and did not work on the Senate version (w/) before they adjourned. All of a sudden we're greeted with shouts of "OMG, We're all gonna dieee" and such because GW's authorization to spy illegally would expire at 12 midnight 16 February. Glenn Greenwald had a good report on this fear-mongering including a discussion of the Heritage Foundation's 'countdown to doomsday' clock.
Let's recap - back in 1978 a law was passed & signed called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that for the first time spelled out the precise requirements for intelligence wiretap procedures. This was needed as all sorts of abuses had previously been instituted in the name of 'national security', including the COINTELPRO program and Hoover's surveillance of MLK. Warrantless spying on foreign->foreign communications was made legal. Warrants would be required, however, for foreign->domestic, domestic->foreign and of course domestic->domestic eavesdropping yet the warrants themselves could be retroactive and would come through a series of secret FISA courts who, out of thousands of warrant requests since 1979, have only denied 5. The Protect America Act was a bill legalizing GW's abuse of the FISA act. it was rammed through the House and Senate last August with claims (later retracted) of an 'impending terrorist attack' that only be 'thwarted' by retroactive immunity for the Bushies' warrantless wiretapping program that had been in place since February 2001 but only revealed summer 2008. The law did not include retroactive immunity for the telcos and was set to expire in 180 days (since extended to 17 February 2008). If these extralegal powers were all that important why did GW promise to veto a permanent extension w/o retroactive telco immunity and why did the House Rethugs block any temporary extension? It's not exactly as if GW is being honest on who is being spied on, indeed, any inquiry by the congress or the courts is immediately blocked with claims of state secrets or by plaintiffs lack of standing due to an inability on the plaintiffs part to prove they are actually being spied on. Indeed, the only possibility we, the people, will find out who the Bushies have been spying on is discovery in several lawsuits filed against various telecommunications companies who illegally spied for the Bushies, lawsuits that will be thrown out when/if the retroactive telco immunity becomes law. GW claims these lawsuits will bankrupt the multi-billion dollar telco industry yet the lead lawyers in these lawsuits are with the EFF & the ACLU. organizations not usually in the top ten list of moneygrubbers. GW claims this retroactive immunity is essential for the continued cooperation of the telcos, yet we have seen what happens when the FBI doesn't pay their bills. What is it Mr. Bush - protection for the American people or protection for you & your cronies from the American people?

Update 29 February - Acording to Glenn Greenwald, looks like Lil' Boots screwed up and told the truth during his press conference yesterday:

Allowing the lawsuits to proceed could aid our enemies, because the litigation process could lead to the disclosure of information about how we conduct surveillance.

(Is it respomsible to speculate? Methinks 'tis irresposible not too so, my thoughts-) i.e. that we've been spying on domestic political opponents, industrial espionage on behalf of our supporters against their less-generous competitors.
Please read the rest (after the short ad), he writes better than I