Bush Wants Telecom Spying Provisions Extended
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President Bush asked Congress to extend Protect America Act, broaden protection for telecoms that cooperate with the government.
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The Bush administration on Friday asked a federal judge to delay enforcing her order for a halt to the government's warrantless communications surveillance program.
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Federal agents continue to eavesdrop on Americans' electronic communications without warrants a year after President Bush confirmed the practice, and experts say a new Congress' efforts to limit the program could trigger a constitutional showdown.
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White House initially wanted immunity for phone companies over possible cooperation with NSA, but new bill also would shield e-mail, IM providers.
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(InfoWorld) - When the U.S. Congress adjourned in the early morning hours Saturday, it left a number of technology-related bills unfinished, including two bills addressingÂ fraudulent access to personal telephone records. Despite pressure from members of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, the full House failed to act on the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act. The law would have allowed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to seek civil penalties against businesses that obtain personal data under false pretenses. The committee has been looking into privacy concerns related to so-called pretexting since early this year, but the issue came to a head last month, whenÂ Hewlett-Packard revealedÂ it had used questionable investigative techniques in the surveillance of board members, employees, and reporters. With pretexting, private investigators or identity thieves pretend to be customers of mobile phone carriers or other companies in order to gain access to personal records such as call logs. Congress still has more time to act on the pretexting legislation or six related bills this year, however. After a month-plus break allowing lawmakers to focus on the Nov. 7 election, Congress will return for a lame-duck session Nov. 9. Democrats last week complained that the House Republican leadership had held up the pretexting legislation, but Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and Energy and Commerce chairman, said he'd continue to push for the legislation. Congress alsoÂ failed to pass a wide-ranging broadband billÂ that would replace local franchise rules with a national system for telecom providers launching Internet Protocol-based television services in competition with cable TV. And although U.S. President George Bush called on Congress to pass legislation authorizing a controversial National Security Agency (NSA)Â surveillance program, two bills making it easier for the government to conduct surveillance without court-ordered warrants also stalled. One piece of Internet-related legislation did pass early Saturday. The Senate passed a bill providing money for seaport security, and added to the bill was a provision prohibiting U.S. banks and credit-card companies from processing payments to online gambling sites. A group of professional poker players had asked Congress to reject the bill, but a group of House Republicans pushed for the legislation, saying offshore gambling sites were breaking U.S. gambling-control laws. Bush had called for legislation to authorize the NSA program, which has listened in on the electronic communications of U.S. residents without court-ordered warrants, as a way to head off multiple lawsuits targeting the program. He has argued the program is necessary to help keep U.S. residents safe from terrorism. The HouseÂ passed one surveillance bill, but the Senate failed to act. The House bill would allow federal law enforcement officials to spy on U.S. residents for up to 90 days without a court order in the period after a terrorist attack. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a civil liberties and privacy advocacy group, said it was happy to see the surveillance and broadband bills stall. Republicans supporting the surveillance bill were pushing it as a way to show they were focused on national security during the last weeks of the congressional campaign, said Nancy Libin, a staff counsel at CDT. "Now that they've gone home, I'm not sure what kind of priority it will be when they come back," she said. Several civil liberties groups had opposed the broadband bill as it lacked protections for so-called net neutrality. Net neutrality advocates want a law that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or slowing service to Web sites offering competing content, and they have successfully halted the Senate version of the broadband bill, despiteÂ heavy lobbying from large broadband providers.
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U.S. President George W. Bush ratcheted up pressure on Congress on Thursday to pass new rules for his domestic spying program before it expires this weekend, saying he was prepared to delay a trip to Africa to help advance the measure.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Congress should proceed cautiously while considering bills to authorize a U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program because of the potential impact on the technology industry, a tech trade group said Friday. A day after legislation to authorize the controversial NSA program stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) sent a letter to the committee raising concerns about surveillance programs that "undermine" government checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution. A massive surveillance program will hurt users' confidence in the privacy of communications networks and will put burdensome requirements on tech and telecom vendors, said Ed Black, president and chief executive officer of CCIA. The trade group's members include Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. "This is a very delicate area, and we have to be careful of what we do," Black said. "What the [Bush] administration has been pushing is a system without real limits, without real checks." U.S. President George Bush's administration has used the NSA program to monitor electronic communications of U.S. residents, without seeking court-issued wiretap orders. Bush, in a speech on Thursday, defended the program and said it helps keep U.S. residents safe. Although Bush administration officials continue to say the program is legal, Bush called on Congress to authorize the program as a way to head off multiple lawsuits challenging it. "The terrorists who want to harm America can now buy disposable cell phones, and open anonymous e-mail addresses," Bush said during a speech in Atlanta, Georgia. "Our laws need to change to take these changes into account." In August, a federal judge in Michigan declared the NSA program illegal, and in July, a federal judge in California, denied motions by the U.S. government and AT&T Inc. to stop a lawsuit over the carrier's alleged participation in the NSA program. On Thursday, a federal judge in Oregon rejected a motion by the U.S. government to stop a lawsuit there alleging the NSA program is illegal. An Islamic organization brought the lawsuit against Bush and directors of the NSA and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Also on Thursday, two bills to authorize the NSA program stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee when Democrats offered a series of amendments. Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, complained that Democrats were obstructing the legislation. Specter may try to bring the legislation up for a vote in the Judiciary Committee later this month. Black urged the committee to fully consider the economic effects of a large surveillance program. Telecom carriers and Internet service providers may have to store records of all communications for several months if the legislation is approved, he said. "We're running headlong into a major alteration of the way communications in this country are monitored without a thorough consideration of all the factors in play," Black said.
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The Senate reopens debate on a bill that would protect from prosecution anyone who helped with President Bush's warrantless spying on Americans. Immunity would extend to telecom companies and the president himself.  Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) reasserts his threat to block the measure.
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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
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Phone companies that took part in President George W. Bush's warrantless domestic spying program would receive retroactive immunity from lawsuits under a bill approved on Tuesday by the Democratic-led Senate.
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President Bush pressured the House on Thursday to finish a bill giving the government more leeway to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists
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Senate Democratic leader says more time is needed to finalize proposed legislation that would make telephone and Internet companies immune to lawsuits alleging illicit spy aid to the feds.
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President Bush said Thursday he'll delay his trip to Africa if necessary to get the House to finish a bill governing U.S. eavesdropping on the phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists.
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The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security today questioned the legal basis of a new Bush administration plan to expand domestic law enforcement agencies' access to powerful satellite and aircraft sensor surveillance technology, contending that the administration has failed to build in...
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The Bush administration on Thursday asked a federal judge to toss out lawsuits seeking to unearth information about the U.S. telecommunications industry's alleged participation in a warrantless government eavesdropping program.
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President Bush has agreed conditionally to a court review of his antiterror eavesdropping operations under a deal that, for the first time, would open an important part of his once-secret surveillance to a constitutional test.
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President George W. Bush said on  Thursday he was prepared to delay his Africa trip to stay in  Washington to press Congress to pass new rules for his domestic  spying program before it expires this weekend.