Today, the Associated Press is either confused or deliberately misleading its readers:
The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence expects a compromise soon on renewal of an eavesdropping law that could provide legal protections for telecommunications companies as President Bush has insisted. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, in a television interview broadcast yesterday, did not say specifically whether the House proposal would mirror the Senate’s version. The Senate measure provides retroactive legal immunity to the companies that helped the government wiretap U.S. computer and phone lines after the September 11 attacks without clearance from a secret court.
…
The eavesdropping law makes it easier for the government to spy on foreign phone calls and e-mails that pass through the United States. Congress did not renew the law before it expired Feb. 16. Mr. Bush opposed a temporary extension and has warned that failure to renew the law would put the nation at greater risk.House Democrats worried that the legal protections would erode civil liberties and accused Mr. Bush of fear-mongering. A quirk in the temporary eavesdropping law adopted by Congress in August allows the government to initiate wiretaps for up to one year against a wide range of targets.
No “quirk” in the law allows the government to “initiate wiretaps … against a wide range of targets.” Only those targets known to exist prior to the law’s expiration may continue to be monitored.
House Speaker Pelosi’s FISA negligence endangers our troops.