White House says spy bill telecom protection vital

[EV_Ares]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday urged the U.S. Senate to reject any bid to deny liability protection to telecommunication companies that participated in President George W. Bush's warrantless spying program.

"Failure to provide retroactive liability protection would undermine the private sector's willingness to cooperate," the White House said in a statement. "Such cooperation is essential to protecting the country from another terrorist attack."

A bill to revamp U.S. spy laws and protect telecommunication companies from potentially billions of dollars in damages from privacy lawsuits easily cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate on late Wednesday.

But the measure, passed overwhelmingly last week by the House of Representatives, faced more Senate roadblocks and delays.

And it was uncertain if the Senate would be able to give anticipated final approval to the measure before lawmakers begin a holiday recess at the end of this week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said, "I'm convinced we will be able to work out an agreement to complete this bill."

Democratic Sens. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut led the opposition, complaining liability protection was unwarranted. They drafted an amendment to strip it out, but appeared far short of the votes needed to prevail.

"We hope our colleagues will join us in supporting Americans' civil liberties," Feingold and Dodd said in a joint statement. They maintain the courts should determine what the companies did before dismissing any suit.

A number of companies agreed to participate in the warrantless surveillance program Bush secretly began shortly after the September 11 attacks.

About 40 lawsuits have been filed accusing AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp of violating Americans' privacy rights. Damages could total in the billions of dollars.

Bush contends that any company that participated should be thanked, not punished, for helping protect the United States.

Link to entire article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080626/pl_nm/usa_surveillance_dc;_ylt=Akx6bwR4jfXvOyvnIVyxr.B34T0D

[niyad]

1. more bs from those lying, thieving, murderous thugs in this maladministration.

[bdamomma]

2. they want those companies to protect their asses.

remember this illegal spying was done before 9/11 is anyone saying that?

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I don't want the 'private sector to cooperate' in violated my Constitutional rights.

[Popol Vuh]

4. Vital for what?

To keep them from going to prison where they belong for the CRIMES they committed?

David Bowie: "This is Not America".

When we live in a society where there's different rules for politicians and corporate executives than there is for the general public. What name does history apply?


:shrug:

[EFerrari]

7. It's vital to keep them out of court where the discovery process

might discover Bush with his pants down.

[damntexdem]

5. Vital to keeping telecoms from paying for their crimes.

I'm ion favor of 'thanking' them by taking billions of their dollars in payment for their criminal cooperation with the Bushistas.

But Dems in Congress are too worried about how many of them would be outed for criminally cooperating with the Bushista spying on the US.

[EFerrari]

6. They don't have to be willing, you lying POS, it's already the law. n/t

[gkhouston]

8. if denying them retroactive immunity would stop them from complying

with illegal requests, should we view that as a plus? :shrug: