Glenn Greenwald: Lawbreaking Telecoms Still Conniving to Obtain Immunity from Congress

Lawbreaking Telecoms Still Conniving to Obtain Immunity from Congress
by Glenn Greenwald


Over the past several months, Democratic Senators Jay Rockefeller and Harry Reid have been the two most valuable instruments in the Bush administration’s efforts to obtain vastly expanded warrantless eavesdropping powers and immunity for lawbreaking telecoms. As the Senate returns to Washington next week, Reid is apparently now more determined than ever before to ensure that the Bush administration’s FISA demands are complied with in full.

Contrary to the completely erroneous claims by the Wall St. Journal Editorial Page that Senate Democrats intend to enact an 18-month extension of the Protect America Act without telecom immunity (false claims that produced some premature blogospheric declarations of victory last week), Reid has spent the last two weeks making abundantly clear that his intention is to bring to the Senate floor as early as next week the Bush-compliant Senate Intelligence Committee bill, and has further made clear that it’s his expectation that that bill — complete with warrantless eavesdropping powers and telecom immunity — will pass. Because the Protect America Act is scheduled to expire in early February, it will be necessary to extend it by 30 to 60 days, but that is seen by the Senate Democratic leadership only as a tool to enable them to work out a deal with the House to ensure that a bill acceptable to the President is sent to the White House promptly.

From all appearances, Sen. Dodd is as committed as ever to doing what he can to stop telecom immunity (thus giving the lie to the jaded claims from Reid and others that he was doing this only to help his presidential bid) — including full-scale filibusters and other forms of procedural obstructionism. But thanks to Reid’s decision to bring to the floor the immunity-providing SIC bill (rather than the immunity-denying SJC bill), it will be exceedingly difficult for Dodd and his allies to strip immunity out of the bill by amendment (60 votes would be required to overcome a certain filibuster of any such amendment). Thus, Bush and Cheney — with the subservient loyalty of their key allies, Rockefeller and Reid — appear, at least as of right now, highly likely to prevail in their twin goals of warrantless eavesdropping and telecom immunity.

None of this is particularly surprising. As The Washington Post’s Dan Frookmin aptly put it yesterday in his online chat:

West Union, Iowa: What’s your take on how the upcoming FISA renewal will play out?
Dan Froomkin: I’m betting on Bush beating the Democrats into submission again. So far, that’s been a safe bet.

Indeed, as a general matter, betting on Democratic Congressional submission to Bush’s demands is one of the surest bets there is. And with Reid and most of the Senate Democratic leadership specifically committed to delivering yet another victory for Bush and their telecom owners on the FISA bill, “uphill battle” is an understatement for describing the challenge which proponents of the rule of law face. As Froomkin put it on a separate, recent occasion in his column: “Historians looking back on the Bush presidency may well wonder if Congress actually existed.”

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/17/6425/

by seeking Telecom immunity!!!