[Infowarrior] - VP Cheney makes strong pitch for telecom immunity

[Richard Forno]

VP Cheney makes strong pitch for telecom immunity

By Ryan Paul | Published: January 24, 2008 - 08:18AM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080124-vp-cheney-makes-strong-pitch-f
or-telecom-immunity.html

United States Vice President Dick Cheney gave a policy address yesterday to
the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank. During his
speech, Cheney endorsed proposals to expand the scope of warrantless
electronic surveillance, called for such programs to be made permanent, and
advocated granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications service
providers that were complicit in potentially illegal government wiretapping
activities.

Cheney's speech articulated the Bush administration's position on
surveillance issues in anticipation of the imminent expiration of the
Protect America Act, a temporary surveillance bill that was enacted in
response to a ruling from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court (FISC) that reportedly reigned in intelligence-gathering activity. The
Protect America Act broadly expanded federal surveillance power and
eliminated many requirements for judicial oversight, making it possible for
the executive branch and some of its direct subordinates to authorize
warrantless interception of communications between people "reasonably
believed to be outside the United States."

Cheney framed this policy as an effort to modernize the FISA process and is
calling for Congress to make permanent those provisions of the Protect
America Act. Cheney also asserts that domestic telecommunications service
providers who cooperate with government requests for information should be
granted legal immunity for their potentially unlawful behavior.

"First, our administration feels strongly that an updated FISA law should be
made permanent, not merely extended again with another sunset provision. We
can always revisit a law that's on the books‹that's part of the job of the
elected branches of government. But there is no sound reason to pass
critical legislation like the Protect American Act and slap an expiration
date on it. Fighting the war on terror is a long-term enterprise that
requires long-term, institutional changes. The challenge to the country has
not expired over the last six months. It won't expire any time soon‹and we
should not write laws that pretend otherwise," said Cheney during his
speech. "Second, the law should uphold an important principle: that those
who assist the government in tracking terrorists should not be punished with
lawsuits. We're asking Congress to update FISA and especially to extend this
protection to communications providers alleged to have given such assistance
any time after September 11th, 2001. This is an important consideration,
because some providers are facing dozens of lawsuits right now. Why? Because
they are believed to have aided the U.S. government in the effort to
intercept international communications of al Qaeda-related individuals."

Critics of the government surveillance program note that telecom involvement
in warrantless wiretapping likely violates section 222 of the Communications
Act, which prohibits disclosure or provision of access to customer network
information. The legality of the program, however, is in dispute because the
FCC has declined to investigate, the telecom companies have refused to
disclose information about the program to Congress, and the FISC ruling
regarding the legality of the program is classified and remains a guarded
secret.

The Bush administration has demanded retroactive immunity grants for the
telecom companies and has threatened to veto any surveillance bills that do
not include said provisions. The telecoms themselves have also been
vigorously lobbying for immunity. There are allegations that the telecom
companies have attempted to use political leverage to obtain the immunity
grants, but the veracity of those allegations cannot be evaluated yet
because the DoJ has‹in clear violation of the Freedom of Information
Act‹been stonewalling the EFF's formal requests for information regarding
interaction between telecoms and politicians.

Concerns have been expressed by critics that the kind of surveillance made
possible by the Protect America Act is only the beginning and that basic
privacy rights will be further eroded as the government continues to push
the boundaries of law. Indeed, Cheney also passingly endorses a proposal
made by intelligence chief Mick McConnell that reaches far beyond the
current FISA dispute and would enable the government to intercept virtually
all network traffic in the United States, an unprecedented level of
surveillance.

In light of consistent abuses of basic surveillance powers granted to
federal law enforcement agencies, it's not a stretch to believe that more
secretive surveillance programs would also be rife with abuse in the absence
of more direct transparency and oversight.