Senate panel OKs wiretap bill, telecom immunity
263385
A U.S. Senate committee approved a bipartisan bill to tighten rules on government eavesdropping on terrorism suspects, but a Democratic presidential candidate said on Thursday he would try to block it.
512394
The Democratic-led House of  Representatives defied President George W. Bush on Friday and  recessed without replacing an expiring spy law with one that  would shield telephone companies from lawsuits.
273251
The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a   bill setting rules for interrogations and prosecutions of   foreign terrorism suspects, sending it to President George W.   Bush to sign into law.
284708
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
614859
The Senate yesterday approved a sweeping measure that would expand the government's clandestine surveillance powers, delivering a key victory to the White House by approving immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that cooperated with intelligence agencies in domestic spying after...
693043
In a setback for the White House, the Senate will not vote this month on whether to give legal protection to the phone carriers that helped with the N.S.A. eavesdropping program.
328687
The Senate voted Tuesday to shield from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
675269
The House of Representatives passed  a bill on Thursday that would provide congressional  authorization for President George W. Bush's warrantless  domestic spying program but subject it to new rules.
689861
As the Senate contemplates whether to grant immunity to companies that helped the government with its secret eavesdropping programs, Wired is asking readers to call key senators to see where they stand on spying immunity.
486875
A US Senate Committee slapped subpoenas on the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney&#39;s office over a warrantless wiretap program Wednesday, spiking tensions in a constitutional showdown.
289924
The House of Representatives passed   a bill on Thursday that would provide congressional   authorization for President George W. Bush's warrantless   domestic spying program but subject it to new rules.
350300
The U.S. Senate defeated on Tuesday an amendment that would take away legal immunity from telecommunications providers that helped the U.S. National Security Agency conduct surveillance on U.S. residents, earning criticism from two civil liberties groups.The Senate, by a 31-67 vote, defeated an amendment to the FISA Amendments Act, a bill that would make changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and allow the NSA program to continue. In the past, the NSA has conducted telephone and e-mail surveillance of U.S. citizens conversing with terrorist suspects overseas without court-approved warrants.The Senate was scheduled to vote on the full FISA bill late Tuesday.The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) slammed the Senate vote. &quot;Immunity for telecom giants that secretly assisted in the NSA&#39;s warrantless surveillance undermines the rule of law and the privacy of every American,&quot; said EFF senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston. &quot;Congress should let the courts do their job instead of helping the administration and the phone companies avoid accountability for a half decade of illegal domestic spying.&quot;It doesn&#39;t make sense for Congress to work hard on the FISA bill when the NSA and telecom providers can circumvent the law, added Greg Nojeim, CDT&#39;s senior counsel. &quot;The telecom immunity provision sends a message that it&#39;s OK for a telecom to assist with unlawful surveillance when secretly asked to do so by the government,&quot; he said.Democratic Senators Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin had sponsored the amendment to get rid of legal immunity for the telecom providers. AT&amp;T and other telecom carriers are being sued in U.S. court in San Francisco for their participation in the surveillance program, which many civil liberties groups say is illegal.Last month, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech that it is &quot;entirely appropriate&quot; for U.S. intelligence agencies to seek help from private companies like telecom providers, because agencies don&#39;t have all the resources they need to keep the U.S. safe from terrorism.&quot;Some providers are facing dozens of lawsuits right now,&quot; Cheney said then. &quot;Why? Because they are believed to have aided the U.S. government in the effort to intercept international communications of al Qaeda-related individuals.&quot;A House bill, passed in November, does not include legal immunity for telecom providers that participated in the NSA program. The House and Senate would have negotiate the differences in the two bills before sending the legislation to U.S. President George Bush to sign. Bush has threatened to veto a surveillance bill that does not include legal immunity for telecom providers, but congressional authorization for the surveillance program expires Feb. 15.It would be counterproductive for Bush to veto a bill that extends surveillance programs that he says are critical, Bankston said. &quot;The only way they can [get legal immunity] is by fallaciously tying it to something critical,&quot; he said.The EFF will push hard to have House negotiators keep the telecom immunity provisions out of the bill that goes to Bush, Bankston added.The EFF and CDT both prefer the House FISA bill, called the Restore Act. Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill would require court approval of surveillance, and the House version would expire in two years, as opposed to six years in the Senate version. The CDT has produced a chart comparing the two bills.
33883
The deal would give telephone carriers immunity for their involvement in the N.S.A.âs domestic eavesdropping program.
687898
A divided U.S. appeals court strikes down a lower court's ruling that a federal government wiretapping program is illegal.
487359
The White House has conditionally agreed to a court review of its controversial eavesdropping program, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday.
194417
SECURITY REFORM: The bill, which adopts many of the findings of the Sept. 11 commission, was also expected to pass the Senate, despite a few remaining conflicts.
55849
The Senate handed the White House a major victory by voting to give legal protection to phone companies that aided government wiretapping.