[Active-l] (ACTION ITEM) Oppose Sen. Specter's FISA bill

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

	Senator Specter's FISA bill (S. 2453) essentially, despite his  
repeated claims to the contrary, attempts to legalise warrentless and  
essentially unlimited surveillance of Americans by the administrative  
branch, even talking to other Americans entirely within the country. I  
strongly oppose this bill and suggest that readers contact their  
senators to vote and work against the bill. It is yet another step in  
the administration's attempt to undo everything America and western  
civilisation have stood for over the last several decades, masquerading  
as a "reform." It is not a "reform," it is a rejection of the core, of  
the most central ideas of limited government power, and is another step  
in creating an imperial "presidency."
					- Dara

-----
Arlen Specter is lying about his own bill -- again
Saturday, September 16, 2006

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/09/arlen-specter-is-lying- 
about-his-own.html

In June, both the ACLU and The Washington Post's Walter Pincus reported  
that the FISA bill proposed by Arlen Specter would expressly immunize  
Bush officials from any legal consequences arising out of their illegal  
eavesdropping -- giving them what Pincus called "blanket amnesty" -- by  
retroactively legalizing warrantless eavesdropping going back to 1978.  
But that weekend, Specter went on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and  
categorically denied that his bill contained any such provision,  
stating:

Absolutely not. That was an erroneous report. If anybody has violated  
the law, they'll be held accountable, both as to criminal conduct and  
as to civil conduct. And in no way did I promise amnesty or immunity or  
letting anybody off the hook.

At the time of Specter's denial on national television, there was no  
copy of his bill available online, so I actually wrote a post  
aggressively criticizing Pincus for his erroneous claim, because I  
assumed that Sen. Specter (due to self-interest, if for no other  
reason) would not go on national television and categorically deny that  
his bill contained what amounts to a Congressional pardon for the  
administration if it really did contain such a provision.

But once a copy of Specter's became available that week, it turned out  
that Specter's bill did contain the very blanket amnesty provision  
which he falsely denied on national television he was offering. As I  
wrote at the time, the Post and the ACLU were completely correct and  
Specter -- in order to make his bill seem less draconian than it really  
was -- simply lied about what his own bill said (that express amnesty  
provision was thereafter removed from the bill, though the effect of  
the current Specter bill might be the same).

[...]


In any case before any court challenging the legality of classified  
information intelligence activity relating to a foreign threat,  
including an electronic surveillance program, or in which the legality  
of any such program or activity is in issue, if the Attorney General  
files an affidavit under oath that the case should be transferred to  
the Foreign Intelligence Court of Review because further proceedings in  
the originating court would harm the national security of the United  
States, the originating court shall transfer the case to the Foreign  
Intelligence Court of Review for further proceedings under this  
subsection.

[More at URL]

--
Please do not add this email address to any mailing
lists, or give it to any company or web site. Thanks!