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The House has passed a replacement bill providing all of the surveillance capabilities requested by the President, and so has the Senate. There is only one significant difference between the House and Senate versions, and while Bush has threatened to veto the House version, he has praised the Senate's, and is actively urging the House to pass an identical version of the bill.Well, Bush was caught moving his lips again, and he displayed the same fear mongering we've grown to expect from him. Here's the President from the South Lawn yesterday:
"If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning will be compromised."
"Failure to act would harm our ability to monitor new terrorist activities, and could reopen dangerous gaps in our intelligence."
"The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor terrorist communications. Our intelligence professionals are working day and night to keep us safe, and they're waiting to see whether Congress will give them the tools they need to succeed or tie their hands by failing to act."
From those statements, it's clear the President knows that such surveillance without the proper legislation is illegal, and when it was finally revealed by the New York Times (who had held the story for over a year) that he had been secretly engaged in that same illegal activity for years without proper legislation, he had to persuade Congress to hastily pass the temporary "Protect America Act".
But if both the House and Senate are now willing to permanently provide the very tools the President has requested, why is he in such a tizzy? Why are "the lives of countless Americans" in danger?
The reason is that the House bill does not provide immunity from liability for Verizon, AT&T, MCI, Qwest Communications, and a number of other telecommunication carriers who cooperated with the President as he engaged in those illegal activities. Basically, the President is saying that the lives of countless Americans depend on stifling discussion of the telecommunications industries involvement.
Well sorry, Dubya, the telecommunications industry can have their day in court. They've got the resources to present their case. I'm certain that many think that you're just attempting to help your corporate friends by protecting the cash in their corporate coffers. I don't think so. It's not really about the money, is it, Dubya?
The problem (and it is a problem, isn't it Dubya?) is that they'll publicly proclaim their innocence by blaming you, that they were only complying with your illegal requests, and given the lack of celerity in civil cases, they'll be proclaiming it for years, through trial, judgment, and appeal after appeal.
You know they'll argue that, yes, their legal staff was well versed in the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment but that hardly mattered when laws no longer prevail. They'll argue that they, too, were fearful of your abuse of power.
You presented them with a genuine dilemma, Dubya. They too, like many Americans, knew that their well-being was jeopardized, that the repercussions were simply unpredictable when a President promulgates secret Executive Orders, demands compliance, and threatens criminal action if anything about them is ever revealed.
So it isn't really about the telecommunications industry is it, Dubya? It's all about you. It's always all about you.
