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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Eavesdropping unlikely to pass through lame duck Senate

The Dems want to hold this over so that they can create the wording.
Legislation aimed at President Bush's once-secret program for wiretapping U.S.-foreign phone calls and computer traffic of suspected terrorists without warrants shows all the signs of not moving ahead, notwithstanding President Bush's request this week that a lame-duck Congress give it to him.

My question reading this is whether this version of the bill contains a "retroactive immunity" clause similar to the one in the torture/detainee bill. (Also here and here.)

Because, if the administration feels that it needs that immunity for past crimes relating to wiretapping, and the Dems block this bill until they have control, how big a bargaining chip is that?

(Unrelated: Digging back, I came across this paragraph again where "Senior military officials have told Congress those prohibitions (Geneva Conventions) were violated." War crimes admitted in Congress. Never really discussed.)

2 Comments:

  • Tip of the iceberg...beware the Titanic.

    By Blogger sumo, at 12:59 AM  

  • I assume you mean the admission of war crimes IN CONGRESS.

    I couldn't believe it when I read this, that it was buried as if it were nothing.

    I mean, that's not allegations, that's not testimony from a detainee. That's an admission from the people in charge of the program IN CONGRESS, and nobody ever said a word about it.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:06 AM  

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