FISA Is About Protecting AT&T, Verizon and Bell South's Money, Who Will Protect Our Liberty?

[McCamy Taylor]

The talk around Washington is that Congressional Republicans will try to slip through a newer, meaner FISA Bill and Congressional Democrats will let them. Afterwards, we will hear the usual chorus of "We can not afford to look weak on terrorism with an election coming up", but consider this article from September in the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/washington/19nsa.html?_r=1&oref=login

Mr. McConnell...also pushed for a provision that would grant legal immunity to the telecommunications companies that secretly cooperated with the N.S.A. on the warrantless program. Those companies, now facing lawsuits, have never been officially identified.
Democratic Congressional aides say they believe that a deal is likely to provide protection for the companies.

Why? Why are Congressional Democrats so ready to give telecommunications companies immunity for breaking the law and spying on American citizens for the Bush administration? What about AT&T and Verizon and Bell South makes them above the law? Maybe its the sizable campaign contributions and the fact that they have started giving more to Congressional Democrats now that they are in power?

Here is a summary of Telephone Industry giving to Congress in 2006 by party:

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.asp?Ind=B08&cycle=2006

Here is how AT&T has begun to share the wealth with Democrats.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB117790069010286617-Xz4XikFqFlSwWSokkpgptCULmoo_20080428.html

One stark example of the shift in corporate giving is AT&T Corp. In 2005, SBC Communications Inc. bought AT&T -- long one of the nation's most politically active companies, and one with a strong Republican bent -- and adopted the AT&T name. In the first quarter or 2007, giving from the company's federal PAC favored Republicans, though less so than in the previous election cycle. The company's PAC gave 39% of its $120,000 in donations to Democrats, up from 30% during the whole of the 2005-06 cycle, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.

Verizon has been spreading cash around Congress, too, and most of it has been going to Democrats, as you can see here.

http://www.newsmeat.com/ceo_political_donations/Ivan_Seidenberg.php

Now, the big telephone service providers have a problem, ever since Dumbya admitted that he used private companies to illegally spy on Americans (I suspect that talking about it was not part of the deal).

http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=122448

The New York Times reported Saturday that the NSA has collected large volumes of telephone and Internet communications since the Sept. 11 attacks by "tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries."

Leading telecommunication companies have been saving information on calling patterns and passing it along to the government, the newspaper said. The companies have also given the NSA access to electronic switches that connect U.S. and overseas communications networks, a "significant expansion" of NSA capabilities, it said.

People were hopping mad. Since the days of Nixon, the word "wiretap" has made Americans see red. If they could not get satisfaction from Bush, they could get it in civil court from the phone company. Based upon the information that W. spilled, law suits were filed against AT&T and the others.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/16/NSA.suit/

BellSouth and AT&T were added to a class-action lawsuit against Verizon Communications that alleges the companies illegally participated in a National Security Agency domestic surveillance program.

The complaint, filed in Manhattan District Court, is asking that the companies pay $200 billion in fines to their 200 million subscribers.

Attorneys Carl Mayer and Bruce Afran said that since the lawsuit was filed Friday they have been overwhelmed with calls from people wanting to join the suit.

The suits have been consolidated in the 9th circuit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/31/AR2007083101873.html

Plaintiffs suing AT&T in connection with the government's warrantless surveillance program this week filed a motion asking a federal appeals court in San Francisco to consider as evidence the recent admission by the government's top intelligence official that telecommunications companies aided the program.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the El Paso Times in an interview published Aug. 22 that "under the . . . terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us," and as a result, the companies "were being sued." He asserted that such suits, which include the AT&T case, "would bankrupt these companies.

Well, boo hoo.

In case anyone thinks that the Bush administration held any telecommunications executives' feet to the fire, the CNN article above mentions that Qwest did not comply with the order to participate in the wiretap scheme, because warrantless wiretapping is illegal.

Today, a mother of two was ordered to pay a quarter of a million dollars to the telecommunications industry for downloading a handful of songs. However, the nation's largest phone companies expect Congress to write them exemptions from the law of the land---exemptions allowing them to infringe upon our Constitutional liberties---because they are afraid that they might suffer a bad judgment in a civil court that will cost them money. And the members of Congress---our elected Democratic members--may give them that exemption, because they want to keep the gravy train of campaign contributions flowing before next fall's election.

This is not right. The phone companies need to be taught a lesson. The quarter of a million dollar fine is supposed to deter consumers from stealing artists' music, right? Well, the telecommunications companies need to be deterred, too. They need to be made to understand that they can never, ever violate the public trust again, even if an administration bribes them with favors or threatens them with frivolous prosecutions. If the civil judgment is too large, they can appeal it. Or file for bankruptcy and reorganize. That is what the courts are for. Congress does not exist to sell pardons like some Medieval Church.

Let the members of Congress with a conscience, people like Sen. Leahy, know that we are watching and we do not want our nation's phone companies to be above the law. Make the Democratic presidential candidates address the issue. Democratic politicians can not denounce warrantless wiretap and excuse the behavior of AT&T, Verizon, Bell South at the same time. That is just making sure that it will happen again.

[Mojorabbit]

1. Brilliant post

and I agree a hundred percent.

[unhappycamper]

2. Here's a little primer on the issue

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/unhappycamper/4

[PassingFair]

3. I know people who think this is perfectly OK in the name of safety.

It boggles the mind.

Let us not forget that the ONE phone utility company that was NOT in compliance
with the gov't wiretap requests, QWEST has had SEVERAL of its OFFICERS CONVICTED
of various crimes and sent up the river since the scandal has erupted, including
it's CEO and CFO:


http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/12/former-qwest-vp-pleads-guilty-to-wire.php

Coincidence?

[McCamy Taylor]

5. No, not coincidence. And for the lawbreakers to get off while the law abiders

get punished is just too Orwellian for words. Why doesn't Congress just pass a law like the one The Phone Company in the film "The President's Analyst" wanted forcing every citizen in the US to get a chip implanted from either AT&T, Verizon or Bell South, with a monthly sum to be added to government tax withholding to be paid directly to those companies, since the federal government obviously exists to increase those companies' coffers?

[PassingFair]

6. Don't look now.... but AT&T OWNS Bell South....

Congress Okay'ed it in January.

:puke:

And,,,,don't give them any ideas vis a vis implanting chips, OK?

[McCamy Taylor]

7. Yes, I know. Ma Belle is about to rise from the grave again. After we

worked so hard to break it up.

[nashville_brook]

4. damn nice work, MT!