[Infowarrior] - Dodd Filibuster Threat Wins; Spying Bill Postponed to Next Year

[Richard Forno]

Dodd Filibuster Threat Wins; Spying Bill Postponed to Next Year - Updated
By Ryan Singel EmailDecember 17, 2007 | 7:28:55 PMCategories: NSA

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/12/dodd-filibuster.html

Senator Christopher Dodd's threatened filibuster of a bill giving immunity
to telecoms that helped the government spy on Americans unexpectedly carried
the day Monday, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided to postpone the
vote on the measure until after the winter break.

The announcement was an unexpected victory for civil liberties groups, whose
anti-immunity fortunes looked grim this morning as the Senate looked primed
to pass an expansive spying bill that would free telecoms like AT&T and
Verizon from privacy lawsuits.

Dodd showed his moxie and determination all day, as he held the floor for
long stretches, railing against an administration-backed bill that would
have freed telecoms from 40-odd lawsuits pending against them in federal
court.

The presidential candidate threatened to filibuster and hold the Senate
floor if the Senate shot down his amendment to strip immunity from the bill.
That threat moved Reid to postpone a vote on the bill, so that the Senate
could take up war funding bills, a massive domestic spending bill and
changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax before the winter break.

Dodd's determination to fight telecom immunity also boosted his lagging
presidential campaign.

Electronic Frontier Foundation legal director Cindy Cohn was "very, very
pleased" about the delay.

The EFF is suing AT&T for allegedly helping the NSA wiretap the internet, a
suit that is now awaiting a decision from the U.S. Ninth Circuit Appeals
Court, which will likely rule in the coming weeks if the suit can continue
despite the government's arguments that the suit puts "state secrets" at
risk.

"We hope that the senators will take the holiday break to listen to their
constituents," Cohn said. "The overwhelming majority of their constituents,
as far as we can tell, think telecom immunity is a bad idea."

Dodd spent nearly 10 hours on the Senate floor Monday, assaulting the
administration's secret warrantless wiretapping program and channeling
Senator Frank Church, whose investigation in the 1970s of the nation's
intelligence services clandestine led to Congressional limits on government
spying.

Those limits, which included the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, will
be loosened by all of the spying bills moving through Congress.

After Reid's announcement on Monday night, Dodd took to the floor again,
thanking Reid for not invoking procedural moves to stop him from speaking at
length today.

"I felt so strongly about this issue I was determined to do everything in my
power to stop it," Dodd said. "I am grateful we are moving on to other
issues and that we will return to this matter in January. My hope is between
now and then we can resolve this matter.  If it's not I'll be back here
opposing those provisions giving immunity."