PaulSpoerry.com

Social Media, technology, and geeky stuff for your brain.

  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Categories
    • Google+ Posts
    • Site news
    • Tech
      • Android
      • Apple
      • Chrome
      • Gadgets
      • Hacking
      • Linux
      • OSX
      • Privacy
      • Web Life
        • Bittorrent
        • Facebook
        • FireFox
        • GMail
        • Google
        • Google+
        • Twitter
        • WordPress
        • Windows
          • Windows 7
    • Google+: Getting Started Guides
    • Games
    • Meditation
    • Politics
    • Science
    • That’s freakin hilarious
  • Code
    • FreeImageZoom
    • Post Editor for Google+™
    • The Plus Editor
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Politics / Congress discovers spine, starts examining NSA surveillance

Congress discovers spine, starts examining NSA surveillance

May 25, 2007 by Paul Spoerry Leave a Comment

Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, this week announced his intention to hold hearings that will probe the extent of the cooperation between telephone companies and the NSA.

After resistance from the White House last year, the Republican-controlled Congress chose not to examine the issue, but it has been raised once again by a recent Bush administration request for immunity for the phone companies. That retroactive immunity was included in the government’s most recent House and Senate funding requests for US intelligence services, and it would grant the telephone companies immunity regardless of the legality of their actions.

Before granting such immunity, though, Reyes is determined to find out exactly what these companies might have done. In a statement issued by the Intelligence Committee, Reyes said, “Before granting immunity for any activities, it will be important to review what those activities were, what was the legal basis for those activities, and what would be the impact of a grant of immunity.”

To find out, Reyes plans to hold hearings in June to determine the nature of the NSA’s surveillance program and to find out whether it was legal. The hearings will also consider the issue of whether laws need to be changed to allow intelligence agencies to better track terrorist communications.

Reyes says that he “will not prejudge the outcome of these hearings,” but the fact that he has serious questions about the retroactive immunity suggests that he won’t be easily persuaded to sign off on it. That’s good news for organizations like the EFF, which is embroiled in a lawsuit with AT&T over the issue. Even if the administration doesn’t get its way in Congress, it will continue to push for the courts to throw out such cases on the grounds that they will expose state secrets. Thus far, though, the combined case against the telephone companies remains alive.

Original story

Filed Under: Politics, Privacy, Tech

About Paul Spoerry

I’m a groovy cat who’s into technology, Eastern Thought, and house music. I’m a proud and dedicated father to the coolest little guy on the planet (seriously, I'm NOT biased). I’m fascinated by ninjas, the Internet, and anybody who can balance objects on their nose for long periods of time.

I have a utility belt full of programming languages and a database of all my knowledge on databases... I practice code fu. Oh, I've also done actual Kung Fu, and have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

I run. I meditate. I dance. I blog at PaulSpoerry.com, tweet @PaulSpoerry, and I'm here on Google+.

I'm currently work for IBM developing web enabled insurance applications for IBM and support and develop a non-profit called The LittleBigFund.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright © 2023 · Epik on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in