Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) has temporarily defeated an attempt to pass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which would have provided immunity to telecommunications companies who cooperated with the Bush administration’s secret wiretapping program.
“After nearly a full day spent on the Senate floor, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) defeated an attempt to pass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform legislation that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies who cooperated with the Bush administration‚Äôs secret wiretapping program. Dodd objected to the motion to proceed to the bill early this morning and remained on the floor for almost ten hours, taking a stand for the rule of law and the Constitution with his statements throughout the day. At approximately 7:30 P.M. Majority Leader Reid announced the FISA reform bill would be pulled from the Senate calendar and reconsidered in January.”
Update: Cory Doctorow explains why this issue is important:
Here’s the thing: EFF and others are suing the telecoms for participating in the wiretapping program. These lawsuits are the best chance we have of getting the details of the program into the public, so we can finally find out what the NSA have been doing to us all these years. The reason the government wants to grant the telecoms immunity is to keep the dirty laundry in the closet — to keep us from finding out how they’ve been breaking the law.
Coverage: Wired News, The EFF, AP, New York Times, ZDnet, Slashdot, Cnet News, Huffington Post, BoingBoing
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