Letting Lawsuits Cripple Our Foreign Intelligence

ARRA Comment: Carter Wood has detailed an excellent insights on comments by Sen Kit Bond (R-Mo), member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, concerning the threat to national security created by Democrats. In summary, after having a previously agreed to by-partisain FISA bill voted out of both the the Sen. Intelligence Committee with coordination with the Sen. Judiciary Committee, the Democrats majority in the Senate Judiciary Committee unilaterally without consultation stripped out immunity provision. The immunity provision provided protection for private telecommunication carriers when ordered or directed by the Federal Government to assist them in intelligence gathering. Sen Bond said, "We can't have effective intelligence gathering if we can't grant immunity protection to carriers for Government actions. Why should industry cooperate with the government if it opens them to lawsuits." Note: people would still be able to sue the Federal Government but lawyers for our enemies and other law suit groups should not be able to sue the companies when those businesses complied with the orders of the Federal Government. And then such suits should be handled subject to protection of national security within State's Secrets privilege and the security classifications within a special Federal court like the Surveillance Intelligence Court and not in District courts. In addition to the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, four other law enforcement associations (FBI NEIA, Nat'l Sheriffs Assoc, Nat'l Trooper Coalition, & International Assoc. of Chief of Police) have asked for FISA to be continued with immunity in place for businesses. Editor's Conlusion: Foreign terrorists, suspected terrorists or suspected friends of terrorists should not have the same rights as US Citizens. American citizens or businesses should have total immunity from lawsuits for assisting both Federal, State and local government when such actions are requested by those agencies in addressing foreign terrorists.
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by Carter Wood, Shop Floor: Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO) called in from Missouri to talk to several bloggers this afternoon, bringing attention to the Senate's pending consideration (maybe this week) of S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act, i.e. the reworking of laws governing the collection of foreign intelligence. The current law, an extension passed in August, expires on February 1.

In this effort to bring intelligence law up to date, the big sticking point has become immunity for the telecommunications companies. About 40 lawsuits have been filed against the carriers that cooperated with the federal government's requests to help monitor possible foreign terrorist activities in the wake of the murderous September 11, 2001, attacks.

In short, privacy groups and cash-hungry trial lawyers have teamed up on litigation that can only discourage private citizens from cooperating in the government's efforts to capture the people who would kill and maim us. Suppose it could be A LOT of cash.

Senator Bond: We can’t have an effective intelligence system for electronic collection unless we have protection and cooperation of carriers. And in addition, we have lots of challenges in cyber-security that’s going to require close cooperation with the carriers. If we leave them exposed to attacks by trial lawyers for wildly exorbitant claims, which in my view have absolutely no basis in fact, then how can they justify to their shareholders cooperating with the government?

I have read the opinions of the Department of Justice, the Attorney General, the orders, those are, I believe, lawful on their face. They’re lawful orders of the government. And it is absolutely irresponsible to refuse to give protection to American companies or other carriers who have cooperated with us, and leave them exposed to random lawsuits to collect attorneys fees and to gather fodder for those who believe that terrorists abroad should get constitutional protections and the privacy rights of American citizens.

When you tell that to somebody back here in Missouri, they look at me in disbelief, and I said, “Yes, that’s what this is all about.

The Senate Intelligence Committee passed out a bipartisan version of the bill that provides retroactive and prospective immunity for the telecoms. (Here's the committee's report.) The Senate Judiciary Committee stripped out the immunity (as did the full House in passing its own bill, H.R. 3733).

This is a disastrous course of action. As a nation, we were supposed to have awakened after 9/11 to the real threats that our civilization enemies represented. Citizens would stand vigilant, aiding those in government in preventing new and deadly attacks. Has our resolve slipped? Has the country changed so much in the six years since? Strip immunity from the intelligence surveillance bills, and the answer will be, sadly, yes.

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Tags: Carter Wood, Christopher Bond, FISA, Kit Bond, telecom immunity