House Committee Leaders Unite to Oppose Immunity for Telecoms

HOUSE COMMITTEE LEADERS UNITE TO OPPOSE IMMUNITY FOR TELECOMS
[SOURCE: Electronic Frontier Foundation]
House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI), Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak (D-MI) have sent their colleagues a letter urging them to oppose immunity for phone companies that assisted in the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. "By tying the question of lawsuit immunity to questions of national security and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform legislation, the President has created a false choice for Congress," the letter states. "The issue of immunity for phone companies that chose to cooperate with the President's warrantless wiretapping program deserves a separate and more deliberate examination by Congress. No special urgency attaches to the question of immunity other than the present Administration's general eagerness to limit tort liability and its desire to avoid scrutiny of its own actions, by either the courts or the Congress."
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/02/08

* For the full letter from Congressmen Dingell, Markey, and Stupak:
http://www.eff.org/files/nsa/dingell.pdf

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