Editorial: Battling over immunity

Monday, Dec. 3, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

After reconvening this week the Senate is expected to consider legislation that would, among other things, grant blanket immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program.

The measure, designed to strengthen warrant requirements and court oversight of the federal government's domestic counterterrorism surveillance activity, is similar to legislation the House passed Nov. 15.

But the House version does not grant telecommunications companies retroactive immunity to lawsuits that may be filed by people whose electronic communications were turned over to authorities without warrants or their knowledge. The Senate bill would grant such immunity.

And the American Civil Liberties Union says the Senate's version amounts to a "blank check" that protects telecommunications companies - not only for past participation in the program, but also for any future activity.

Liz Rose, an ACLU spokeswoman, tells USA Today that "blanket immunity may cover (surveillance) programs that we don't even know about yet," such as examinations of cell phone databases to spot calling patterns and trends among customers.

The Bush administration never intended for Americans to know that U.S. intelligence agencies eavesdropped without warrants on U.S. residents who called foreign countries following the 9/11 attacks. The program was revealed in news stories last year and it subsequently was placed under the supervision of a U.S. secret foreign intelligence court until Congress could craft legislation to give it proper oversight.

The House legislation offers some much-needed accountability, but President Bush has vowed to veto any legislation that does not include immunity for telecommunications companies. But those companies aren't disclosing what information they handed to federal authorities, so granting them immunity at this point would mean doing so blindly, which is why we hope the final legislation that passes Congress doesn't bow to the president's demands.