links for 2008-02-13

• Senate Approves Spy Bill, Protects Telecom Immunity - washingtonpost.com
  "The Senate on Tuesday approved new rules for government eavesdropping on phone calls and e-mails, giving the White House much of the latitude it wanted and granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that helped in the snooping after the Sept
  (tags: surveillance internet telecoms freespeech privacy u.s.a. u.s.policy)
• Bush Administration's Warrantless Wiretapping Program - washingtonpost.com
  The Washington Post has a good backgrounder on the whole abominable situation.
  (tags: surveillance privacy freespeech internet telecoms u.s.a. u.s.policy)
• CDT | Press Release - Statement of the Center for Democracy & Technology on Passage of Senate bill S2248, The FISA Amendments Act
  "The Senate choose to put the politics of fear ahead of the rights of Americans. It could have provided intelligence agencies the tools they need without sacrificing civil liberties. At the end of the day, the judiciary, not spy agencies acting alone, sho
  (tags: surveillance freespeech privacy law u.s.a. u.s.policy)
• White House Admits that Defendants in Telecom Cases Assisted in Wiretapping Program | Electronic Frontier Foundation
  "White House Press Secretary Dana Perino admitted that the defendants in the lawsuits against telecommunications carriers "certainly helped us," marking the first time the White House has admitted that the particular companies alleged to have participated
  (tags: internet telecoms u.s.a. u.s.policy surveillance freespeech privacy)
• Telecom Immunity Passes in Senate; Battle Lines Drawn for Conference Showdown | Electronic Frontier Foundation
  "The conference between the House in the Senate is the one, last chance to defeat the administration's outrageous push for telecom immunity, and the chambers are poised to complete the process by this weekend."
  (tags: freespeech surveillance privacy telecoms internet u.s.a. u.s.policy)
• EFF: Support the House in the Last Stand Against Telecom Immunity!
  "Today, the Senate passed a terrible surveillance bill granting immunity to lawbreaking telecoms, putting the House and Senate at the brink of a face-off. Show your support for the House to keep telecom immunity out of the final bill!"
  (tags: u.s.a. u.s.policy privacy surveillance law freespeech internet telecoms)
• Because They Said So - New York Times
  "This debate is not about whether the United States is going to spy on Al Qaeda, it is about whether it is going to destroy its democratic principles in doing so."
  (tags: congress surveillance privacy freespeech humanrights u.s.a. u.s.policy)
• Glenn Greenwald - The WSJ editorial page lies about our surveillance laws
  "The shamelessly fear-mongering claim that telecoms won't "cooperate" in the future without amnesty...is nothing more than the standard authoritarian tactic of warning that unless we succumb to Bush's demands...we're all going to die at the hands of the T
  (tags: surveillance privacy freespeech telecoms media internet u.s.a. u.s.policy congress law)

Comments

[Charles Liu]

So the message we are sending to the Chinese is they can't have Yahoo respond to criminal investigation and put people like Shi Tao in Jail, but it's okay for AT&T to respond to criminal investigation and put people like Chi Mak in jail.

[Clarke]

Naw, apples & oranges, Chuck.

[Charles Liu]

Please back up your claim with some facts, clark.

Chi Mak was wrongfully convicted as the suppose "state secret" is in reality public domain information from IEEE.org, freely available for download in China.