U.S. Congress - S.2248 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008
S.2248 - Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008
An original bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, to modernize and streamline the provisions of that Act, and for other purposes. view all titles (5)
All Bill Titles
- Short: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 as passed senate.
- Short: FISA Amendments Act of 2007 as reported to senate.
- Short: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2007 as reported to senate.
- Short: FISA Amendments Act of 2008 as passed senate.
- Official: An original bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, to modernize and streamline the provisions of that Act, and for other purposes. as introduced.
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Telecoms should not be granted immunity from suits alleging that they violate citizen’s civil rights when they wiretap domestic phone lines without a warrant.
Let the courts decide if the telecoms acted illegally. Congress shouldn’t simply grant immunity for fear of looking weak on terrorism.
Filtered Comment [ show ]
A good corporate citizen? People are citizens – not corporations. Also complying with illegal actions is not good. If there is a grave threat posted by international terrorists, then let’s hold a national referendum on wiretapping American citizens. If the telecoms are going to spy on Americans, they need to do so with the consent on the people.
Just like judicial, legislative
and executive branches are separate
entities in our government process,
corporate America should be separate
as well. They should not be helping
government violate our rights to
privacy, especially without probable
cause, reasonable suspicion or
oversight.
Fact is, they are complicit to the
Bush Adminstration’s scheme of violating
FISA and immunity should not be
tolerated by the People.
In general, citizens cannot sue the government unless there’s a specific law that says that they can. There’s no such law in this case, so there can be no suit against the government here. If this bill passes, we’ll never, ever know what really happened with the wiretaps.
The distribution of personal phone calls is a direct violation of the 4th amendment. The bill is not going to tract only international phone calls it is going to tract all phone calls. If this bill becomes law then the neither the govt nor the corporations will be held to any form of acountability, and all that is doing is taking away citizen power over corporations and govt. The govt is suposto work for us not the other way around.
To keep the example simple, it is certainly in your best interest as a citizen to obey a police officer, but just as when you know that your own constitutional rights are being trampled, you can be compliant, and still follow through in filing a complaint with Internal Affairs, or the officers Sergent. Do not understand how helping an officer violate the rights of another to be any different. Further, you mention this was “to track communications with International terrorists”. FISA was a bill that set out the rules for how that was going to take place, and AT&T, Version, and these other Telecoms with an imho corrupt sector of government broke those rules. As I believe Lewis Black put it, “It is just that perfectly legal thing that requires immunity”. If we can’t play by our own rules, how are we any better than the problems we are trying to solve. This was DOMESTIC WARRENTLESS wiretapping of CITIZENS. I was under the impression the 4th amendment gave this a perfectly moot point a long time ago.
OzarkGuru:
The “I was just following orders” defense was pretty well defeated about 60 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Defense
If telecoms did nothing wrong, they do not need immunity—especially legislated immunity.
Filtered Comment [ show ]
Any citizen who is a constituent to a senator who voted to release telecoms of their legal liabilities in this matter should stand up on their two legs and work to replace that senator. They are traitors. They have voted to never EVER investigate the wrongdoings of the Bush Administration. This is the worst slap to our faces the senate has ever dealt. What’s next? Marshall law? Google InfraGard and you will see.
The list of democratic senators voting against the Dodd amendment, from
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/2/12/115245/547
Bayh (D-IN), Carper (D-DE), Conrad (D-ND), Feinstein (D-CA), Inouye (D-HI), Johnson (D-SD), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Lieberman (ID-CT), Lincoln (D-AR), McCaskill (D-MO), Mikulski (D-MD), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO) Stabenow (D-MI), Webb (D-VA)
Obama showed up to vote…Clinton did not.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2008-20
According to the above site, Obama did not show up to vote. Maybe I am missing your point???
Obama showed up to vote in favor of the Dodd amendment. He didn’t bother showing up for the ultimate vote, because it was obvious it was going to pass.
Once again Feinstein shows her true colors. I, being from California, and one of her constituents, will NEVER vote for her again. Unfortunately, she is in office until 2012, so we have 4 more years of this traitor. I’m a Democrat and very, very ashamed of her. God help us all.
The very concept of retroactive guilt or innocence or liability or immunity is to utterly foreign to our system of law that I simply can’t believe that it’s being given serious consideration…and in fact it appears to be about to become law.
My personal theory about this is that the widespread spying being done without warrants or supervision is being used to gather enough dirt on the members of Congress that most of them can be sufficiently blackmailed or extorted to go along with pretty much whatever is demanded of them. As far as the telecoms, they’ve gotten some pretty sweet deals from the last couple of administrations (Democrat and Republican), so they have a pretty strong incentive to play ball, especially when they’re told that, by definition, anything and everything they do is, if not legal, at least not something for which they can be prosecuted or sued.
Why would anyone need retroactive immunity from anything unless they were doing something wrong, and knew only too well that they were doing something wrong?
This bill should have never passed giving the telecommunication company’s immunity.I can’t believe the senators did not defeat this bill.Can it be that Bush has something on these senators that they are so scared to against him.This is another issue that the american people have no voice in.The fear factor is not going to work for Bush this time.
It’s not a matter of whether the Telecoms did anything illegal or not. Much like the rest of politics, the illusion of doing something illegal is just as bad.
Providing immunity doesn’t lay blame. Arguing “if they didn’t do anything wrong, they don’t need immunity” is tantamount to saying, “If you didn’t commit a crime, why care if the government looks at your stuff?”
It’s time we took our freedoms back and it appears that this bill is the perfect soapbox for Democrats to stand on and call out those who have taken them from us. Who will stand?
If the House doesn’t get this bill signed, I think that we are dooming ourselves to a huge mistake. In this day and age, we need our intelligence to be on the ball and not lagging behind the enemy.
If the NSA believes it needs to conduct extra-legal datamining to do its job it needs to take that concern through the appropriate judicial channels – such as the FISA court – in order to make that happen. “Lagging behind the enemy” may not appeal to you, but I think the idea that there needs to be some separation of powers between the various branches of government is also worth protecting.
A labyrinthine ammendment fuelled by paranoia. It’s only certain effect will be a flood of financing to black hole operations.
I have a question for all you very smart people….why does Harry Reid allow the repubs to ‘fillibuster’ all the bills they want to by just saying ‘we fillibuster’, and then make Senator Dodd actually stand up and physically FILLIBUSTER?? Is there any way we can get rid of Harry, and get Senator Dodd in as the Majority Leader? Harry is basically useless.
to marilynb21:
…you need a 2/3 majority to get cloture on a filibuster- the Democrats aren’t there yet, and wont be under any leadership.
Most of the concerns here seem to be centered on the revision of FISA dealing with telecom immunity, … which I agree with. Basically the telecom’s did indeed break the law at the executive office’s request, but they still went against current law (and subverted the spirit of the constitution if you ask me) by providing details about their clients to the Feds. Concerns over becoming a big brother state aside, we have a perfectly reasonable procedures law enforcement can follow to obtain warrants allowing access which telecoms must follow. There is absolutely no need (or desire, hopefully) to allow law enforcement access to any line they please at any time without oversight. I hope people are familiar with studies that found upwards of 85% of (currently) illegal were useless and unnecessary (sorry, I forget the source) so why should the American public be gung ho about bringing the telecoms onboard to giving them less oversight legally?
I really hope the people that are roiled at this addendum can take a second to write to their rep and ask them to Vote Nay.So how did Kerry vote in the final bill?
I ask this because he has recieved money from Verizon.
Kerry voted “Nay”.
Here is a link to a list of the top 20 latest recipients of contributions from telephone companies… http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.asp?Ind=B08&cycle=2008 (From the Center of Responsive Politics)
Dear Sir: The following is a very important concern of mine and others that are having the same experience as myself. I would like it know that this country or any other country cannot survive with such outrageous tactics. Spying, doing harm to Citizens of this great nation is most dangerous to the ongoing of civil liberties. It is most urgent that the Congress of this country take action against such activities. Sincerely, L E Richards
:
Harm done to U S Citizens
Satellites used by the U S Government for national security is being use for surveillance and harming U S Citizens
The Federal Government has placed in space, for national security reasons Space Stations to observe areas along the coast and throughout the country, thinking that we my be attacked by our enemies. Of course, some individuals in the Government, citizens too, believes that any and all means are necessary to protect and defend the citizens of this Great Nation, and I agree. The thing is, these Satellites can and are being used for seeking out and disrupting individuals from their normal everyday activities. Satellite technology is a dastardly thing to citizens in any country when that technology becomes a controlling factor to those citizens living “the pursuit of happiness’ dream.
I’m not crying out for myself alone. I am convinced others are being affected by the government, being spied upon and done harm. These satellites are affecting many of this country’s citizens, people who have no intention of disrupting the government. People I know and love, are being attacked and penetrated in a harmful way; and, I’m thinking, these citizens are unawares of what’s happening to them, not realizing their infirmity could and are being created by the U S Government Satellites program and their coordinators. I am personally dumbfounded at how many people I know, or had known, have illnesses that could very well be the result of harmful vibrations that originate from satellites.
I’m hoping you aren’t thinking “what an imagination, satellites doing harm to a United States citizen”? Naturally, not having any real proof on my part, I could refer to the News Media, where reports have come out that Satellites are capable of impeding citizens from their normal existence. I’m sure the people of this great nation would like to know if they said something, whether meaningful or off the cuff, with no intention of changing the society in which they live, that they could easily be tormented. Even government employees and elected office members could be under surveillance and done harm, without them even knowing it. Individuals can be located and monitored, in the home, driving a car, even grocery shopping; and, unless the individual becomes concealed and/or are no longer identified, they can be harmed by the U S Government Satellites Program. The End
lawrence Richards law_richards@yahoo.com
7272 landsdale st.
brooksville, fl.
352-585-5466
It’s long past time to strip corporations of personhood as granted by the supreme Court. That a bill to grant retroactive immunity from prosecution for past criminal acts is even proposed much less passed shows how near we are to paralleling the end of the ancient Roman Republic. Next imperial presidents who first claim to be chosen by God then claim to be God