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Senate Votes to Expand Spy Powers, Phone Comp |
| I can't say that I'm surprised by a New York Times story story that the Senate voted to let the phone companies off the hook for illegally turning over millions of Americans phone records.Those 40 lawsuits against the phone companies are going to vanish into thin air.The story goes on to say that the Bush administration believes that the lawsuits could bankrupt the companies and discourage them from cooperating in future intelligence operations.I'm thinking it would discourage them from cooperating in "illegal" future intelligence operations.According to the New York Times, immunity supporters said the phone carriers acted out of patriotism after the Sept. 11 attacks in complying with what they believed in good faith was a legally binding order from the president.The phone carriers acted out of patriotism to do an illegal act.I thought the "I was just following orders," defense was thrown out long ago.Patriotism is defined as "devoted love, support, and defense of one' country; national loyalty."It would have been just as patriotic to follow the laws that are passed in this country.For these companies to say that they thought it was a legal order is really stretching one's suspension of belief, especially when one phone company refused to do so because they found it to be illegal.In an article in USA Today, it stated that Qwest refused to participate in the program because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.We would have to be living under a rock not to think the other phone company lawyers were not discussing the same issue.How much farther down the slippery slope of loss privacy for more security will we travel before finally hitting bottom and George Orwell's story '1984' becomes reality? |
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