This is getting a bit scary. According to an AP story today, the White House is blocking telecom companies from cooperating with Congress to determine whether they permitted unlawful spying on American citizens by the intelligence agencies of the U.S. government.
Three telecommunications companies have declined to tell Congress whether they gave U.S. intelligence agencies access to Americans' phone and computer records without court orders, citing White House objections and national security.
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell "formally invoked the state secrets privilege to prevent AT&T from either confirming or denying" any details about intelligence programs, AT&T general counsel Wayne Watts wrote in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Qwest and Verizon also declined to answer, saying the federal government has prohibited them from providing information, discussing or referring to any classified intelligence activities.
Simultaneously, the Bush administration pushes Congress to grant telecom companies
retroactive immunity from legal action for complying with the spying requests.
The Bush administration, urged by the telecommunication industry, is pushing hard for Congress to include immunity for past actions in any package to protect them from a series of civil suits.
Without the records, "to give immunity at this point in time would be a blind immunity," the House majority leader, Steny D. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, told reporters.
Essentially the White House insists that Congress give telecom companies retroactive immunity but is preventing Congress from finding out what those companies did, i.e. why they need to be immune. If this seems circular and dangerous to you, you're right on target.
They're invoking the "state secrets" privilege to attempt this circuitous avoidance of any oversight by Congress and any possibility of accountability. This is not how an executive branch is meant to act in a system of checks and balances in a country governed by law and justice.
The FISA/wiretapping bill that is coming up for debate may include retroactive immunity for the telecom companies, at least in the Senate version, according to the AP story. As Hoyer said above, it's clear that it should not.
