[338] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] How to Buy the Senate Surveillance Votes
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Wed Feb 13 18:08:50 2008
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Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:01:57 -0800
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How to Buy the Senate Surveillance Votes
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000370.html
Greetings. One can differ about whether or not the sort of
surveillance authorization that the Bush administration is demanding
is necessary and reasonable or not. It's even possible to argue
politely about the administration's implicit assertion that the
intelligence community will suddenly be rendered utterly impotent if
they don't get everything they want, right now, no delays.
However, ongoing intelligence operations are an issue utterly
separate from retroactive telecom immunity. No matter how you feel
about the substance of such immunity (and I personally think it's
criminal), nobody in their right mind can *honestly* argue that
it must be granted now, as an integral part of intelligence
authorizations going forward.
The linkage of these two independent issues essentially approaches
blackmail -- "Give the telecoms immunity for past deeds or we won't
spy and we'll blame you when something bad happens!"
This all demonstrates that despite the gradual lobbying learning
curve of younger firms trying to avoid drowning among the fortresses
of K Street, the venerable old phone companies are still the
uncontested masters at making sure that "money talks and
'you know what' walks."
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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