Bush threatens to kill anti-terrorism law to shield companies
As reported yesterday, the Senate passed a bill extending the President's power to spy without judicial oversight. The bill includes immunity for the companies that cooperated with the Administration's eavesdropping requests in what looks like a violation of the law at the time.
The House version does not include this immunity, thankfully. I wrote earlier about why this issue is bigger than the specific case of companies trying to do their patriotic duty. Bush is pressuring the House to adopt the immunity provisions by threatening to kill any bill that doesn't include immunity. The Congress could vote to temporarily extend the current law, which gives the Administration all it needs to spy in its anti-terrorism efforts. The current law expires Saturday.
Instead, Bush is threatening to let the law lapse, which would let him blame Congress for crippling its anti-terrorism efforts. It's the old "soft on terrorism" strategy, which has sadly been so effective to weaken Democratic party resolve to uphold the Constitution.
Read about the issue here: Bush Presses House on Surveillance
