US Senate Resumes Debate on Surveillance Bill

By Grant Gross

Tue, July 08, 2008 — IDG News Service —

The U.S. Senate resumed debate Tuesday on legislation that would extend a controversial U.S. National Security Agency surveillance program targeting suspected terrorists, even as members of President George Bush's administration threatened a veto of the bill if senators make changes to it.

A group of Democratic senators pushed for an amendment to the bill that would take out the so-called lawsuit immunity provisions for telecommunication carriers that allegedly participated in the NSA program. A second amendment being considered would delay a court decision on whether the more than 40 lawsuits against telecom carriers should move forward for a year, until inspector generals from several U.S. agencies could issue reports on the legality of the surveillance program.

On Monday. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell sent a letter to Senate leaders saying a delay in a decision on telecom immunity would be "unacceptable."

"Providing prompt liability protection is critical to national security," they wrote. "We, as well as the president's other senior advisers, will recommend that the president veto any bill that includes such an amendment."

Critics suggested the Bush administration's threat of a veto means the president is placing a greater priority on telecom immunity than on continuing a surveillance program Bush has called essential for fighting terrorism.

In addition, the telecom immunity provisions would violate the separation of powers set up in the U.S. Constitution, said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. The telecom immunity provisions are the "most extreme example of congressional interference I can find" on the authority of the U.S. court system, Whitehouse said.

Whitehouse suggested the telecom immunity provisions would likely be challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said a vote on the bill, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, could happen as soon as Wednesday.

Civil liberties organizations and many Democrats have objected to the NSA program because it was done in secret and allowed surveillance of U.S. residents who were talking to overseas suspects without court oversight such as warrants. The program was illegal under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure, critics have said.

The FISA Amendments Act is part of a compromise between some congressional Democrats and the administration. It would allow the NSA program to go forward with some court oversight, and it would send the dozens of outstanding lawsuits against telecom carriers for their alleged participation to a district court, which will review whether they should be dismissed.

Loading...
Security MarketSpace
White Papers
5 Tips for Data Loss Prevention Solutions
RSA® The Security Division of EMC has identified 5 key considerations to help organizations simplify the evaluation process for selecting a DLP solution that is right for their business. Learn more »
Secure Training Videos to Prevent Theft
Learn how Dream Force extended their marketing reach without being constricted. Learn more »
Prevent Intellectual Property Theft
Learn what the key components were in Hock International's purchasing decision. Learn more »
Webcasts
Maximizing the Business Value of the PC Infrastructure
Reduced IT budgets have CIOs hunting for ways to maximize their PC infrastructure, while saving money and IT staff time. Diane Bryant, CIO of Intel Corp., talks with CIO magazine's Gary Beach about how her organization is addressing these challenges. Learn more »
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

Data Loss Prevention: A Better Way to Approach Security

Software Executives: Take Control of Your Organization's Code Quality

Delivering Secure and Reliable Data through Spreadsheet Automation

Taking the Service Desk to the Next Level

Why Data Loss is Increasing--and What You Can Do About It

Communications and Collaboration Needs at Business Organizations

Using Open Source to Deploy Web Applications

Mid-Sized Company CIO Community: infoBOOM!

Enterprise PBX Comparison Guide

Getting Value from Outdated Networking Equipment

Accenture IT Consulting: Logical meets technological. More . . .

White Paper: 8 Key Ingredients to Building an Internal Cloud

Read about virtualization and consolidation effort best practices

Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Infrastructure

Top 10 Business and IT Drivers for the Wealth Management Sector

Bottom-Line Benefits of Virtualization

White Paper: The Building Blocks for Cloud Computing

Oracle's Application Grid Technical Demo

Next-Generation Application Servers and Infrastructure

Application Infrastructure at Enterprise Organizations

Achieving Business Agility with Application Grid

Learn about The Information Technology Infrastructure Library.

Achieving Pervasive Performance Management

Gartner Shares Predictions for 2009

64-page prescriptive guide to security, compliance, and IT operations.

Stop Application Fraud at the Source with Device Reputation

Ready to Act: 3 Recommendations for Agile Processes

Automating the Generation and Secure Distribution of Excel Reports

Seven Ways ITIL Can Help You in an Economic Downturn

Maximizing the Business Value of the PC Infrastructure

Learn how to managing client systems in the enterprise.

Cloud Computing: Read about VMware's compelling vision & set of products

Enterprise PBX Buyer's Guide

Secondary Market Primer: Your Network at Half Price

Top-line Performance that's Bottom-line Efficient

Accenture: Outsourcing for uncertain times. Click to learn more.

Learn about the VMware vSphere (TM) & Intel (R) Xeon (R) Processor 5500 Series

Learn how a virtualized enterprise can help your company reduce costs

Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More?

8 Key Ingredients to Building an Internal Cloud

Data Center Optimization: Three Key Strategies

A CIO Executive Guide: Cloud Computing Looms Big on the Horizon

Oracle WebLogic Server Technical Demo

Data Grids and Service-Oriented Architecture

Achieving the Impossible: Unlimited Application Scalability

A Middleware Foundation for Application Grid

Tips for successful virtualization management.

Smart Decisions: The Role of Key Performance Indicators

Reduce risk, gain agility. See how Progress can help your business.

Improve ROI, lower TCO and reduce energy consumption.

 
 
RESOURCE CENTER