Specter floats compromise on telecom immunity

SPECTER FLOATS COMPROMISE ON TELECOM IMMUNITY
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Manu Raju]
The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee is drafting a compromise to resolve the thorny issue of whether to provide retroactive liability protections for the phone companies that allegedly participated in the Bush administration’s secret wiretapping program. At a Thursday markup on a bill to overhaul the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) plans to offer an amendment that would make the federal government -- instead of the phone companies — the defendant in about 40 pending lawsuits across the country. “I think it’s very important that the courthouse not be closed so there can be a judicial determination to see if there have been any violations of privacy rights,” Sen Specter said. “I think the telephone companies were good citizens, and should not suffer from what they did. And my idea is to have the government substituted as the party.”
http://thehill.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69641&Itemid=70

* Private sector should cooperate with terrorism investigators
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: former-Sen Bob Kerry]
[Commentary] When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, our findings pointed to a basic failure by responsible federal officials to connect the dots. We sought a series of changes to how government is structured and operates to help prevent that problem in the future. Congress has passed legislation implementing most of our recommendations. But now, as Congress debates the revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), some are threatening to obliterate some of the dots altogether by allowing lawsuits to proceed against private sector companies that help the government root out terrorists. This would be a serious mistake that could fundamentally endanger our security. We wrote in the 9/11 Commission report that “unity of purpose and unity of effort are the way that we will defeat this enemy and make America safer for our children and our grandchildren.” We cannot hope to achieve such unity of effort if on the one hand we call upon private industry to aid us in this fight, and on the other allow them to be sued for their good-faith efforts to help.
http://thehill.com/op-eds/private-sector-should-cooperate-with-terrorism-investigators-2007-11-08.html