[privacy] Immunity for Telecoms May Set Bad Precedent, Legal Scholars Say

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via The Washington Post.

[snip]

When previous Republican administrations were accused of illegality in the
FBI and CIA spying abuses of the 1970s or the Iran-Contra affair of the
1980s, Democrats in Congress launched investigations or pushed for
legislative reforms.

But last week, faced with admissions by several telecommunication companies
that they assisted the Bush administration in warrantless spying on
Americans, leaders of the Senate intelligence committee took a much
different tack -- proposing legislation that would grant those companies
retroactive immunity from prosecution or lawsuits.

The proposal marks the second time in recent years that Congress has moved
toward providing legal immunity for past actions that may have been
illegal. The Military Commissions Act, passed by a GOP-led Congress in
September 2006, provided retroactive immunity for CIA interrogators who
could have been accused of war crimes for mistreating detainees.

[snip]

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR200710210
1041.html

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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