Telecommunications giants already are shielded from lawsuits for future warrantless spying; now the White House seeks to absolve them of past misdeeds.
Protecting the Wiretappers
By Aziz Huq 

Bowing to White House pressure, Congress passed the 2007 Protect America Act in August, eviscerating any meaningful checks and balances on a sweeping range of governmental surveillance. Now that it has protected telecommunications giants from all future liabilities, the Administration is demanding they be granted amnesty from legal liability forpast complicity in spying on ordinary Americans.

The professed reasons for protecting commmunications giants from liability in secret wiretapping are no less disingenuous now than they were when these rightfully defeated provisions were first proposed after 9/11. Rather than promoting security, the push for telecom amnesty furthers the larger ideological ambitions of the Bush Administration: expanding government power while choking off accountability for the way that power is used.

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell and his allies offer four main arguments in support of the amnesty proposals, each more vacuous than the next.

First, McConnell argues that lawsuits could “bankrupt” the companies. If McConnell is to be believed, we must choose between our civil liberties and our cell phones. But his claim is not credible. At best, such lawsuits would face a long and torturous path to any money judgment, including multiple trips to the US Supreme Court. This path will take years to travel, with the odds stacked against a loss for the telecoms.

Perhaps the best indicator of the fiscal hit the telecoms are likely to take from those lawsuits is the stock market itself–and the evidence there scotches McConnell’s claim. Just one day after the Electronic Freedom Foundation filed a class-action suit against AT&T for complicity in the government’s privacy invasions, the company’s stock rose to 50 cents above its pre-lawsuit closing price (from $26.05 the day before the suit was filed to $26.55 one day after). And when AT&T’s motion to dismiss the case was denied, the price fell 17 cents, to $27.30. Clearly, the market is not impressed by the suits’ potential for bankrupting anyone.

Second, intelligence sources have told Newsweek that they are in “near panic” that telecoms will be “forced to terminate their cooperation” with the NSA for fear of liability. This might surprise the White House–since it has already immunized the telecoms from liability for their cooperation moving forward. Simply put, telecoms already have amnesty for what they do in the future.

Third, amnesty proponents turn to the familiar tactics of fear: they argue that permitting lawsuits against telecoms to proceed will irrevocably undermine America’s safety by revealing our classified means of electronic intelligence-gathering to the world. This is yet another specious contention. Courts have multiple tools in their kit to preserve the secrecy of validly classified information, tools the government has already exploited to hide the truth regarding various practices, from torture, to extraordinary rendition, to warrantless wiretapping.

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So far Blackwater has only received a slap on the wrist after killing innocent civilians. Are the U.S. and Iraqi governments finally ready to send them packing?

Will Blackwater Be Kicked Out of Iraq After Recent Bloodbath?
By Jeremy Scahill 

It’s being described as “Baghdad’s bloody Sunday.” On September 16 a heavily armed State Department convoy guarded by Blackwater USA was whizzing down the wrong side of the road near Nisour Square in the congested Mansour neighborhood in the Iraqi capital. Iraqi police scrambled to block off traffic to allow the convoy to pass. In the chaos, an Iraqi vehicle entered the square, reportedly failing to heed a policeman’s warning fast enough.

The Blackwater operatives, protecting their American principal, a senior State Department official, opened fire on the vehicle, killing the driver. According to witnesses, Blackwater troops then launched some sort of grenade at the car, setting it ablaze. But inside the vehicle was not a small sect from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia or the Mahdi Army, the “armed insurgents” Blackwater described killing in its official statement on the incident.

It was a young Iraqi family — man, woman and infant — whose crime appeared to be panicking in a chaotic traffic situation. Witnesses say the bodies of the mother and child were melded together by the flames that had engulfed their vehicle.

Gunfire rang out in Nisour Square as people fled for their lives. Witnesses described a horrifying scene of indiscriminate shooting by the Blackwater guards. In all, as many as twenty-eight Iraqis may have been killed, and doctors say the toll could climb, as some victims remain in critical condition. A company spokesperson said Blackwater’s forces “acted lawfully and appropriately” and “heroically defended American lives in a war zone.”

Blackwater’s version of events is hotly disputed, not only by the Iraqi government, which says it has video to prove the shooting was unprovoked, but also by survivors of the attack. “I saw women and children jump out of their cars and start to crawl on the road to escape being shot,” said Iraqi lawyer Hassan Jabar Salman, who was shot four times in the back during the incident.

“But still the firing kept coming and many of them were killed. I saw a boy of about 10 leaping in fear from a minibus — he was shot in the head. His mother was crying out for him. She jumped out after him, and she was killed.”

Salman says he was driving behind the Blackwater convoy when it stopped. Witnesses say some sort of explosion had gone off in the distance, too far away to have been perceived as a threat. He said Blackwater guards ordered him to turn his vehicle around and leave the scene. Shortly after, the shooting began. “Why had they opened fire?” he asked. “I do not know. No one — I repeat no one — had fired at them. The foreigners had asked us to go back, and I was going back in my car, so there was no reason for them to shoot.” In all, he says, his car was hit twelve times, including the four bullets that pierced his back.

For the rest of the story, click here. 

Utah Polygamist Convicted

Warren Jeffs, the leader of a polygamous Mormon splinter group, was found guilty of being an accomplice to rape for marrying a 14-year-old girl to a 19-year-old man. What do you think?

Tammy Karp,
Systems Analyst
“Is this that Romney guy everybody’s talking about?”

Sig Carvel,
Ticket Taker
“Oh, come on. If I were to get convicted every time I was an accomplice to rape for marrying a 14-year-old to a 19-year-old, I would have been convicted exactly four times.”

Leonard McNulty,
Carpet Installer
“Also, they were first cousins. Just thought I’d throw that into the mix.”

Today’s photo of the day shows the New York Mets, whose downward spiral has cost them full control of the NL East. GO PHILLIES!!!!!!!!!