Thank you for taking action to stop the Senate from voting for cloture on the Senate Intelligence Committee's terrible spying bill! The vote for cloture failed by 12 votes -- a significant margin in the Senate. Cloture would have ended debate on the surveillance bill, but this victory instead gives Senators more time engage in full debate, and more time to offer amendments to make improvements to protect civil liberties. One major goal moving forward is to advocate for the passage of the Dodd-Feingold amendment, which strips telecom immunity from the spying bill. However, as of now, there is little concrete knowledge about when the Senate will take up that issue.

This denial of cloture was made possible by strong response from concerned citizens and activists like you, and it gives us more time to show Congress: "We the People oppose telecom immunity and want them to stop spying." The Electronic Frontier Foundation and People for the American Way have engaged in a photo/video campaign to send that message to members of Congress -- please visit StopTheSpying.org to contribute a photo or video message to drive the point home: no telecom immunity!

http://www.stopthespying.org

Many thanks,
EFF Activism Team

I'm confused on this though. I expected the votes to go the other way with Republicans not voting.

This week, Senators finally cast their votes on amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This is a critical week for the privacy and civil liberties of all Americans "” the amendments are the last chance the Senate has to prevent handing the Administration a blank check to spy on you for years to come.

Of the amendments, the most important is The Dodd-Feingold Amendment to Strike Retroactive Immunity. The vote on this could happen as early as Monday "” so email or telephone your Senators now and tell them where you stand!

Friday, former counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke penned a brilliant and revealing editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Clarke, you may remember, was a security advisor to four presidents before retiring in 2003 and becoming a vocal critic of Bush's flawed counterterrorism strategy.

An excerpt (emphasis is mine):

Quote:

Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.

Simply put, it was wrong for the president to suggest that warrants issued in compliance with FISA would suddenly evaporate with congressional inaction. Instead - even though Congress extended the Protect America Act by two weeks - he is using the existence of the sunset provision to cast his political opponents in a negative light.

For this president, fear is an easier political tactic than compromise. With FISA, he is attempting to rattle Congress into hastily expanding his own executive powers at the expense of civil liberties and constitutional protections.

...

In order to defeat the violent Islamist extremists who do not believe in human rights, we need not give up the civil liberties, constitutional rights and protections that generations of Americans fought to achieve. We do not need to create Big Brother. With the administration's attempts to erode FISA's legal standing as the exclusive means by which our government can conduct electronic surveillance of U.S. persons on U.S. soil, this is unfortunately the path the president is taking us down.

Congressional votes this week are our last chance to avoid this path "” contact your Senator now!

Oh the theatrics! Let me ask a question. Isn't the original 1978 bill still in effect if nothing is passed now? Just asking"…"….

Things just keep getting uglier on the House floor.

Moments after President Bush threatened to delay his weekend trip to Africa and force Congress to act before key intelligence programs expire, House Republicans staged a walkout to protest Democratic inaction on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill. Frustrated Republicans streamed out of the Capitol and onto the east steps of the Capitol, a powerful act aimed at stopping House floor proceedings and forcing a vote on the FISA bill.

The Republican walkout came after an angry morning in which both sides accused each other of improperly using House floor procedures during the memorial service of Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) who died Monday. Republicans were also angry that Democrats are taking up contempt resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), led his colleagues out of the chamber in a dramatic gesture, saying "let's just get up and leave." But it's not clear if anything will come of the theatrics, as Democrats have refused to take up a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill. Democrats do not want to pass a bill with lawsuit immunity for telecom firms as the White House has demanded.

A Democratic aide said Republicans are at fault because they voted against a 21-day FISA extension on Wednesday, leaving some of the law's programs set to expire.

"We gave them a chance to pass an extension _ you can't put the blame on us," said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "The president and the Republicans look unreasonable."

Bush says expiration of some of the spy programs will hurt national security.

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
Ronald Reagan
40th president of US (1911 - 2004)

I'm from the government and I'm here to help
George W Bush
43rd president of the US (1946 - ?)

So much for the party of individual rights and responsibilities. Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave with all this talk of "trusting the government".

Quote:

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
Ronald Reagan
40th president of US (1911 - 2004)

Quote:

I'm from the government and I'm here to help
George W Bush
43rd president of the US (1946 - ?)

The Legality blog has an interesting read on just how much telecom providers like AT&T could owe their customers should the lawsuit against them for illegal wiretapping be allowed to proceed. While there are more than forty potential suits currently open against Sprint, Verizon and AT&T, AT&T's case against the EFF is the most highly visible, given it involved a 22-year former employee turned whistleblower. If the EFF case proceeds and it shows widespread violation of FISA laws, AT&T would be in some serious financial trouble:

Code provision 50 U.S.C. 1810 imposes civil liability on any person (or entity) for each violation of FISA. Victims of illegal surveillance are entitled to recover $100 for each day they were wiretapped, or actual damages over $1000, whichever is greater. Additionally, FISA provides compensation for attorney s fees and other costs of litigation. . . As you may imagine, one hundred dollars per day, per person adds up over four years. If the Hepting lawsuit is successful, AT&T could face damages of over $36,500 per claimant per year. Nearly every person with a computer or phone in the United States could be impacted.These numbers make it a little more clear why AT&T and Verizon have been spending millions in DC over the past few years in order to get legal immunity for their involvement in these programs. Congress is currently on vacation, but when they return the House will be tasked with deciding whether or not to fight, or support, these companies request for immunity as they move to renew FISA.

Wired's Threat Level blog is reporting that a major wireless carrier offers the FBI direct, high-speed access to the company's voice calls, data packets and company records. A whistle-blower who worked as a network security analyst at the company in question (which the blog strongly hints is Verizon Wireless), says the company "got squirrelly" when he asked about a mysterious DS-3 line linking its most sensitive network to an unnamed third party."What I thought was alarming is how this carrier ended up essentially allowing a third party outside their organization to have unfettered access to their environment," Babak Pasdar, now CEO of New York-based Bat Blue told Threat Level. "I wanted to put some access controls around it; they vehemently denied it. And when I wanted to put some logging around it, they denied that."According to Pasdar, the line is not part of the FBI's CALEA program, which provides specific data when the carrier is presented with a warrant. Like AT&T's legal troubles, this appears to be another instance of direct government access to a communications carrier without any functional legal oversight. The news comes on the same day the FBI admitted it "improperly accessed Americans' telephone records, credit reports and Internet traffic in 2006."

US Terror List now exceeds 900,000 names.

That's right, boys and girls. 1 in every 226 of your fellow Americans is suspected of terrorism.

The list is expected to exceed 1,000,000 names in July.