By Kenneth J. Theisen; February 15, 2008
On February 12th, the Senate handed the Bush Regime a victory that would expand the regime’s power to spy on millions of people. On a 68-29 vote, the Democratic-controlled Senate reauthorized the Protect America Act (PAA). The bill would provide the Bush regime with more powers to eavesdrop in “terrorism and intelligence” cases without obtaining warrants from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. It also provides immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies in domestic spying after the 9/11 attacks. The law is set to expire at the end of this week unless both houses reauthorize it.
In November 2007 the House voted to reauthorize the PAA too, but it failed to pass the immunity provision sought by the Bush regime. Bush praised the Senate for its action and called on the House to put aside “narrow partisan concerns” and pass his requested version of the law as the Senate did. According to Bush, “This good bill passed by the Senate provides a long-term foundation for our intelligence community to monitor the communications of foreign terrorists in ways that are timely and effective and that also protect the liberties of Americans.” As usual when Bush’s lips move, he lies.
This is not a “terrorist surveillance” law but a law to allow spying on
all of us. Both the House and Senate versions of the law include and
continue radical revisions to the FISA law which give the government
almost uninhibited power to spy on millions of Americans without a
court warrant. Any 
communications that “go through” the U.S. are also
subject to surveillance subjecting hundreds of millions of non-U.S.
residents to spying too.
If both houses pass the reauthorization of PAA, hundreds of millions of
phone calls, emails, and other communications will be subject to being
spied on by the Bush regime and future governments. The government
will engage in data mining of communications. No court order will be
necessary in the vast amount of cases. Both houses seem to have little
problem with this aspect of the PAA. The main sticking point is the
immunity provision for telecommunication companies. These corporations
face multiple lawsuits for providing our personal information and
communications to intelligence agencies without warrants. Bush wishes
to give them a gift by providing them retroactive immunity in order to
secure their future cooperation in the government spying on their
customers. He also wants to protect his own regime because he fears the
reaction of the public when we discover his regime was not just spying
on “terrorists.” The lawsuits, if they proceed, would reveal this
dirty little secret.
The House should reject Bush’s threats and let the PAA die. But based
on past experience this is not likely to happen. When the Bush regime
cries “national security” and “terrorism”, legislators usually go along
with the Bush regime’s fascist program. And Bush is crying again. On
February 13th he stated, “At this moment, somewhere in the world,
terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to
bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale
by comparison. In order to be able to discover … the enemy’s plans,
we need the cooperation of telecommunication companies. If these
companies are subjected to lawsuits that could cost them billions of
dollars, they won’t participate. They won’t help us. They won’t help
protect America.”
There you have it folks – this law is necessary to protect us from
terrorist enemies. How soon will the House give Bush what he wants?
More importantly how soon can we drive the Bush regime from power so
that we no longer have to listen to such demagoguery?