Retired New York firefighter John Gilleeny alerted me to today’s editorial in the New York Daily News. There, they berated New York’s Democrats in the House for their failure to support the Senate’s version of legislation to allow our intelligence services to electronically eavesdrop on the enemy. The Daily News named names:
Some say these limitations are minor — merely a bit of added paperwork. We disagree. Nothing that crimps national security when lives are potentially at stake — New York lives, at that — can be shrugged off.
What’s worse is that there’s no remotely valid reason for it.
By a big bipartisan majority, the Senate okayed a measure to extend foreign electronic eavesdropping under reasonable court supervision. But House Democrats balked, largely because the bill granted immunity from lawsuits to telecom companies that responded to government requests for information in the post-9/11 crisis.
Allowing these firms to be sued for complying with government directives aimed at preventing a second attack would be a travesty. And denying the U.S. full protection over the issue is all the more outrageous.
Some of New York’s Democratic delegation refused to extend the eavesdropping legislation because they insist the telecom companies should be subject to suit. Others say they oppose the bill on the ground that it permits warrantless wiretapping. The latter have truly gone off the deep end.
The roll of dishonor is as follows: Charles Rangel, Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler of Manhattan; Nydia Velazquez, Edolphus Towns and Yvette Clarke of Brooklyn; Joseph Crowley, Gary Ackerman, Gregory Meeks and Anthony Weiner of Queens, and Eliot Engel, Jose Serrano and Nita Lowey of the Bronx.
All voted against legislation in August or said they oppose it now. They are doing constituents, the city and the nation a terrible disservice.
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