Senate Votes to Expand Spy Powers - New York Times

Common sense reigns, for a change, in the Senate, no thanks to our two Vermont senators. Now the House should promptly agree with the major provisions of the Senate bill. Since this bill gives the President the power and discretion for surveillance, Senator Obama and Senator Clinton who did not vote on it, but said they would have opposed it, could choose not to implement it, should one of them be elected. Their pandering to the liberal left is obvious.

Granting immunity against the lawsuits brought against the telecom companies is absolutely the right thing to do in the wake of 9/11.

"The bill, which had the strong backing of the White House, allows the government to eavesdrop on large bundles of foreign-based communications on its own authority so long as Americans are not the targets. A secret intelligence court, which traditionally has issued individual warrants before wiretapping began, would review the procedures set up by the executive branch only after the fact to determine whether there were abuses involving Americans.

“This is a dramatic restructuring” of surveillance law, said Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department intelligence lawyer who represents several telecommunication companies. “And the thing that’s so dramatic about this is that you’ve removed the court review. There may be some checks after the fact, but the administration is picking the targets.”

The Senate plan also adds one provision considered critical by the White House: shielding phone companies from any legal liability for their roles in the eavesdropping program approved by Mr. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks. The program allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on the international communications of Americans suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.

AT&T and other major phone companies are facing some 40 lawsuits from customers who claim their actions were illegal. The Bush administration maintains that if the suits are allowed to continue in court, they could bankrupt the companies and discourage them from cooperating in future intelligence operations."

Senate Votes to Expand Spy Powers - New York Times