House Delays Vote On Surveillance Bill

Republicans Derail Democratic Bid To Expand Court Oversight Of Government Wiretaps

(AP)  Republicans successfully maneuvered to derail a Democratic government eavesdropping bill Wednesday, delaying a House vote until next week at the earliest.

The bill, which seeks to expand court oversight of government surveillance in the United States, fell victim to a gambit by the chamber's Republican minority. Democrats were forced to pull the bill from the House floor with no certainty about how it might be revived.

A Democratic staff member said the bill will not be rewritten but substantive amendments may be allowed when it finally does come up for a vote, which is the Democrats' intention.

The earliest that could happen is next week, as Thursday the House will be busy with an attempt to override a presidential veto of a children's health care bill.

The Democratic eavesdropping bill would have allowed unfettered telephone and e-mail surveillance of foreign intelligence targets but would require special authorization if the foreign targets were likely to be in contact with people inside the United States, a provision designed to safeguard Americans' privacy.

Those so-called "blanket warrants" would let the government obtain a single order authorizing the surveillance of multiple targets.

Republican critics, however, said the blanket warrants would tie up intelligence agents in legal red tape, impeding them from conducting urgent surveillance of terrorist suspects. "Congress needs to move forward, not backward," President Bush said at a White House news conference as the debate in Congress began. Mr. Bush had vowed to veto the bill if it reached his desk.

The House's Democratic leaders pulled the bill after discovering that Republicans planned to offer a motion that politically vulnerable Democrats would have a hard time voting against.

The amendment would have said that nothing in the bill could limit surveillance of Osama bin Laden and terrorist organizations. While Democrats say their bill already provides that authority, voting against the amendment could make it seem as though a member of Congress were against spying on al Qaeda.

Republicans sought to play down the amendment's role in causing the bill to be pulled. Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said the bill was losing moderate Democratic votes because it was fundamentally flawed.

Passage of the Republican amendment would have sent the bill immediately back to committee, effectively killing it. Key Democrats believed they were short of the votes needed to defeat the move.

"Our proposal gives Democrats a very simple choice: They can allow our intelligence officials to conduct surveillance on the likes of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda or prohibit them from doing so and jeopardize our national security," said Republican leader Rep. John Boehner of Ohio in a statement.

The Democratic bill had faced opposition from the left, as well. The American Civil Liberties Union has been waging a campaign against it, arguing it should require individual court orders every time an American's communications are intercepted. Some liberal Democrats shared those concerns, and "Republicans took advantage of a tenuous situation," said Caroline Fredrickson, ACLU's Washington Legislative director.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, argued that the bill carefully balances civil liberties with the need for speed and flexibility in spying on terrorists.

The current surveillance law gave the government so many authorities "that people are not safe and secure in their own homes. The government can go in there and search computers and residences," Reyes said. "This legislation corrects the deficiencies."

Mr. Bush's veto threat came in part because the bill lacks retroactive immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies. They have been accused in about 40 civil suits of violating wiretapping and intelligence laws by secretly providing the government access to Americans' e-mails and phone records without court orders.

House Democrats have pledged that no immunity will be granted until the White House tells Congress exactly what the telecommunications companies did that requires legal protection.

The administration contends that without immunity the companies could be bankrupted by legal penalties.

The Senate's version of the bill, expected to be released Thursday, is likely to include at least a limited immunity provision, according to sources close to the process who demanded anonymity because the measure was not final.

The measures would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which dictates when the government must obtain eavesdropping warrants from a secret intelligence court.

That law was last changed in August after the administration argued technological advances had made it too cumbersome and created a dire gap in its intelligence collection.

The updated law allowed the government to eavesdrop without a court order on communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., even if an American is on one end of the conversation - so long as that American is not the intended focus or target of the surveillance.

[simonsez40]

REPUGS trying to cover up their crimes........always looking out for their partners in crime!

[toldyouso21]

This was a stupid move by the Democrats. What they should have done was amend the amendment--stating that the government could go after Bin Laden, but if Americans were involved, a warrant would still be necessary. To delay the vote --only delays the amendment--it can be tacked on next week and still push the issue. If I were the Democrats--all the issues that Bush wanted votes on would be delayed and held hostage until concessions were given on other issues. From Health care for kids, to strong benchmarks for Iraq--if the Republicans and Bush wanted to play games, then what they wanted (Like funds) would never even come to the table--those items would continue to wait or the benchmarks would be attached. The problem is--the Democrats really have no idea of how to play hardball--they just know how to sneak in a win--if they have to go toe to toe--they balk--almost every single time.

[ajayvee]

Mr. Bush''s veto threat came in part because the bill lacks retroactive immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies. They have been accused in about 40 civil suits of violating wiretapping and intelligence laws by secretly providing the government access to Americans'' e-mails and phone records without court orders. ---

Immunity after admitting to breaking laws? Amazing! But what is more amazing is the fact that one can count on the Democrats to run out of b**ls and give Mr. Bush this. Makes you wonder what the next envelope-push will entail!

[adventurepa]

"secretly providing the government access to Americans'' e-mails and phone records without court orders."
When are these laws that have been broken going to be prosecuted?

[ajayvee]

adventurepa wrote: "secretly providing the government access to Americans'''' e-mails and phone records without court orders."
When are these laws that have been broken going to be prosecuted? -----

Late last night, some talking-head on one of the networks was saying that any prosecutor who even so much as considered touching such prosecution would see the end of his career -- if not worse. And I ask myself, if I were a prosecutor, just how lucky would I feel going against Mr. Cheney and his "people" particularly if I were married with young children?

[taotxzen]

I challenge any of the 26 percenters to view the Frontlines program ''Cheneys Law.'' If you watch this and still support this regime than there is no hope for you - you are offically a sheep.

Its available on-line at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/


''For three decades Vice President Cheney conducted a secretive, behind closed doors campaign to give the president virtually unlimited wartime power (much of which occured prior to 9/11). After 9/11, the Justice Department and the White House made a number of controversial legal decisions. Orchestrated by Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, the department interpreted executive power in an expansive and extraordinary way, granting President George W. Bush the power to detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy without congressional approval or judicial review.''

[taotxzen]

In his most extensive television interview since leaving the Justice Department, former Assistant Attorney General Jack L. Goldsmith describes his initial days at the OLC in the fall of 2003 as he learned about the government''''s most secret and controversial covert operations. Goldsmith was shocked by the administration''''s secret assertion of unlimited power.

''There were extravagant and unnecessary claims of presidential power that were wildly overbroad to the tasks at hand,'' Goldsmith says. ''I had a whole flurry of emotions. My first one was disbelief that programs of this importance could be supported by legal opinions that were this flawed. My second was the realization that I would have a very, very hard time standing by these opinions if pressed. My third was the sinking feeling, what was I going to do if I was pressed about reaffirming these opinions?''

[ajayvee]

taotxzen wrote: I challenge any of the 26 percenters to view the Frontlines program ''''Cheneys Law.'''' If you watch this and still support this regime than there is no hope for you - you are offically a sheep.---

If anyone here who writes under a nom-de-plume is under the illusion that CBS will withold your personal information from the "authorities" unless the "authorities" produce a court order, then you are officially a dreamer.

[undermyboot]

The puzzycrats- again throwing away principle and our liberty through incompetence and to retain their own pitiful power. F''em.

[walt1944-2009]

The Great Emperor Bush II is pleased that his loyal Republican congressmen have served him well and blocked the latest revision of the communications survelliance bill witten by the evil, spineless Democrats to provide more oversight and accountability over the Emperor''s attempts to take away our right to privacy that the masses enjoy.

The Emperor knows that he can count on his loyal GOP congressmen to do his bidding and protect his growing power base from any attempt by the sneaky Democrats to make him accountable to anyone or anything. After all, how could he call himself "The Great Decider" if he had to answer to someone for his actions, no matter if they are legal or not?

ALL HAIL THE GREAT EMPEROR BUSH II''S LUST FOR POWER!!!

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!

[bxazy8]

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We have Domestic Terrorists It Is Called The Bush Administration And All Of His "Secretive Signed Statements" Either Stand Up Now or Go To Sams Club And Keep Buying Cases of Vasiline So When You Put Hillary In Office! WAKE UP AMERICA!

[tylenol6]

VOTE RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT.......If you want to continue the IRAQ WAR FOREVER and start a WWIII with
IRAN vote for HITLERY, OBAMA, EDWARDS, GUILIANI, MC LAME
AND THOMPSON. Do your research on these 6 slimeballs
people.

[kansas1946]

(AP) Republicans successfully maneuvered to derail a Democratic government eavesdropping bill Wednesday, delaying a House vote until next week at the earliest.

The bill, which seeks to expand court oversight of government surveillance in the United States, fell victim to a gambit by the chamber''s Republican minority. Democrats were forced to pull the bill from the House floor with no certainty about how it might be revived.
*******************************
Lord, are these Republicans just all psychopaths??? We can only hope about half of them are gone in 2009 and America can get back to normal.

[bizzzz-2009]

WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS STORY? WAS IT BURIED? AS AMERICANS, WE SHOULD KNOW HOW WRECKLESS OUR SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE IS.

Pelosi Makes Political Misstep in Reversal on Armenian Genocide

The two meetings House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended before a vote on a resolution labeling the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide foreshadowed the biggest political misstep of her speakership.

In the hours before a House panel approved the resolution Oct. 10, Pelosi was told in a tense meeting with Turkey''''s ambassador that the vote would endanger his country''''s alliance with the U.S. She had a warmer session with an Armenian cleric and representatives of Armenian-Americans, who have a large presence in her home state of California. In both, she made clear she intended to bring the resolution to a full House vote.