Bush Wants Phone Firms Immune to Privacy Suits

The Bush administration is urging Congress to pass a law that would halt dozens of lawsuits charging phone companies with invading ordinary citizens' privacy through a post-Sept. 11 warrantless surveillance program.

The measure is part of a legislative package drafted by the Justice Department to relax provisions in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that restrict the administration's ability to intercept electronic communications in the United States. If passed, the proposed changes would forestall efforts to compel disclosure of the program's details through Congress or the court system.

The proposal states that "no action shall lie . . . in any court, and no penalty . . . shall be imposed . . . against any person" for giving the government information, including customer records, in connection with alleged intelligence activity the attorney general certifies "is, was, would be or would have been" intended to protect the United States from terrorist attack. The measure, which has not yet been filed, is contained in a proposed amendment to the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill.

The immunity measure has stoked controversy following public uproar over news reports of warrantless access to both telephone conversations and records as part of the administration's post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism policies. It is part of a larger debate about the proper balance between guarding national security and civil liberties and the extent to which private companies have acted as an arm of the federal government. In March, the Justice Department inspector general found that the FBI had secret contracts with three telephone companies to obtain Americans' phone records, claiming "exigent circumstances," when, in many instances, none existed.

I’m not wild about being put into some surveillance pool, but I don’t care if my phone calls were followed. There was one interesting thing that happened with Cingular. I wanted to add international calling to a cell line, on a plan I have had for years. Since the new cell number hadn’t been on long I was asked a bunch of questions about were I’d lived in the past. They asked me addresses and asked if I’d lived there. Some were past addresses and some were not. I hadn’t lived in one of the addresses for 18 years, well before cell phones were common. It was informative as to how much info is out there about us. Cingular had an address I’d lived at 18 years ago? Cingular didn’t exist 18 years ago. Some of the addresses they asked if I’d lived at were very near past addresses. It was a test of my past to identify me. I’d understand the gov having that information, but Cingular? I don’t really care but it was an eye opener that more than the government have somewhat detailed information on who we are. And I’m a nobody.

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