I don't know how any of you will react to this, but it doesn't inspire any confidence in Obama, as a candidate of principle, when I read quotes from one of his campaign's advisors that try to advance the same lies about FISA "expiring", as Bush has communicated to us for months now:
Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/us...yt&oref=slogin
Obama Voters Protest His Switch on Telecom Immunity
By JAMES RISEN
Published: July 2, 2008
....Greg Craig, a Washington lawyer who advises the Obama campaign, said Tuesday in an interview that Mr. Obama had decided to support the compromise FISA legislation only after concluding it was the best deal possible.
“This was a deliberative process, and not something that was shooting from the hip,” Mr. Craig said. “Obviously, there was an element of what’s possible here. But he concluded that with FISA expiring, that it was better to get a compromise than letting the law expire.” ....
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Quote:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/28/bush/
Thu February 28, 2008
Bush: We're in a slowdown
.... Bush also urged House leadership to pass legislation that would provide legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the intelligence community eavesdrop on suspected terrorists after the September 11 attacks. Video Watch Bush urge Congress to move ahead with FISA »
"The law expired; the threat to America didn't expire," Bush said in reiterating a push to permanently update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that regulates wiretapping.
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A temporary extension of the law expired February 16, days after the Senate had passed a more permanent version. That bill included a provision that would provide retroactive immunity to any telecommunications companies that helped the intelligence community eavesdrop on suspected terrorists.
The House version did not include that immunity, and it failed to pass another 21-day extension.
The Bush administration says the expiration of the temporary measure has left the United States vulnerable to terrorists, but Democrats say that provisions remain in effect allowing the government to institute wiretaps as long as they get FISA court approval within 72 hours.
Bush has often said that the law is outdated and needs to be changed to account for modern technology.
Telephone and Internet companies face as many as 40 lawsuits related to their compliance with government requests to tap into that traffic......
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At most, all that needed to be passed was a change to the FISA laws that adjusted surveillance warrants procedures in response to this:
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...702221_pf.html
Agency Seeks Greater Surveillance Power Overseas
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 28, 2007; A04
....The underlying question hinges on modern technology: When communications between one foreign-located source and another foreign-located source travel through a U.S.-located terminal or switch, can they be intercepted without a warrant?...
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FISA itself was never set to expire if no new law was passed, it would simply revert, this August to the language, "modernized" at least
50 times over the last 30 years....that FISA contained before temporary changes passed in congress in August, 2007:
Quote:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200802190005?f=h_latest
....In fact, FISA did not lapse or expire. What expired http://mediamatters.org/items/200802160001?f=s_search was the Protect America Act (PAA), which amended FISA and, among other things, expanded http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/wa...erland&emc=rss the government's authority to eavesdrop on Americans' domestic-to-foreign communications without a warrant. Indeed, Pelosi noted http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=0533 in a February 13 statement that "the underlying Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides for the surveillance of terrorists and provides that in emergencies surveillance can begin without warrant, remains intact and available to our intelligence agencies."
The Washington Post reported http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021403920.html in a February 14 article headlined "If the Law Expires," that if the PAA expired, "[t]he government would retain all the powers it had before last August under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which requires the government to obtain court approval for surveillance conducted on U.S. soil or against U.S. targets." Further, a February 14 New York Times article reported:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/wa...sq=fisa&st=nyt
"The lapsing of the deadline would have little practical effect on intelligence gathering. Intelligence officials would be able to intercept communications from Qaeda members or other identified terrorist groups for a year after the initial eavesdropping authorization for that particular group.
If a new terrorist group is identified after Saturday, intelligence officials would not be able to use the broadened eavesdropping authority. They would be able to seek a warrant under the more restrictive standards in place for three decades through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."
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