Can you hear me now

 

We saw during the Johnson and Nixon administrations the misuse of our intelligence agencies to spy on American citizens who the administrations thought might be a threat to their power and war policies. The FBI and CIA spied on civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King and others who were looking to end the carnage that lasted ten years in Vietnam. Political opponents had their offices broken into, State Department Official Daniel Ellsberg was under the threat of prison but he still released the Pentagon Papers. These Papers proved that the US was lying to the American people with the illegal bombing of Laos and Cambodia all the while they were saying we weren’t expanding the war. Senator Mike Gravel also had the courage to put into the congressional record the 4,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers, so that it could be discussed publically without the threat of being charged with treason and possible conviction.

 

With the obvious abuses from the Nixon administration that had its enemy’s list and who finally left office in disgrace over Watergate, Congress in 1978 enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as FISA to curb future administrations from violating our Fourth Amendment which protects all of us from illegal search and seizures. This includes wiretaps, any electronic surveillance, and opening our mail or email unless there is a warrant. FISA was put in place to make sure that foreign threats should be monitored by our intelligence agencies, NOT Americans. If a US citizen is suspected of working with a foreign threat, the intelligence agencies actually could immediately tap that phone without a warrant. But once done, the agency then has to go to a Secret FISA Court within a couple of days to justify their actions. But the Bush administration in their quest for absolute power found justifying what they were doing as inconvenient. A FISA judge resigned when he realized that they had no intention of following the then current FISA law.

 

The current debate in Congress finally showed some backbone by the Democrats when they wouldn’t give immunity to the telecommunication companies who were tapping our phones without warrants. Quest was the only company that didn’t violate the law and our Constitution! They said no to this administration that lied us into Iraq. Bush recently was saying that these companies were doing the bugging of our phones because they were being Patriotic! Guess what? When one of these Patriotic companies didn’t get paid by the US Government, they stopped bugging until they got paid. Yeah that is real patriotism!!?

 

The main reason certain members of congress and the Bush Administration want immunity for these companies is because if they are brought to court they know the fingers will all be pointed back at the Oval Office. I can hear their defense now, “We were just following orders.” So for those who voted in Congress to give immunity to the telecom companies please reread the Constitution you swore to uphold. And yes Congressman Carney your one of them and I am very disappointed.