Something Happening Here
Something interesting happened in the Senate yesterday.
The bill to extend retroactive immunity to the phone companies for participating in the government’s domestic spy program had to be pulled by Senate Majority Leader Reid. This occurred after the Republican leadership in the Senate said that they had the votes to pass it.
Here’s basically what is at issue.
When the majority of long distance phone connections were made using satellites, the NSA spy agency could simply put up their own dishes to listen in on those transmissions and do all of the spying that it wanted without anyone’s permission. Whether or not they followed the laws regarding domestic surveillance is hard to tell. But since local and domestic long distance communications went over land lines rather than through satellites, no one was too concerned.
The demand for high speed cheap Internet connectivity caused a rapid worldwide deployment of land-based fiber optic connections. Those connections are faster and cheaper than satellites, so fiber is now the primary distribution mechanism for most phone communications too. That caused a problem for the NSA, however, who now had no easy way to listen in. So the NSA went to the phone companies and asked for permission to install equipment which would allow wiretapping the fiber. The difference is that now there was no doubt that they were getting not only international conversations but most domestic phone traffic and most of the traffic over the Internet too.
Most of the phone companies agreed and a few didn’t. As phone company employees for those companies who cooperated discovered what was going on, they tried to blow the whistle. The phone companies eventually got sued and ran to Congress seeking protection.
The main argument for protecting the phone companies is that if they aren’t offered immunity from prosecution, they will be unwilling to cooperate with government the next time the government asks them to break the law. Excuse me if I’m a bit naïve, but why is this a bad thing? Just because the government is asking doesn’t automatically make something legal or ethical.
In this time of deep divisions and culture war, there are those who feel that the government is justified in whatever it does in the name of protecting the country against terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, the old saying regarding the corrupting influence of power has proved accurate again. After six years of one party rule, political agenda trumps respect for the law, and you end up with abuse being confused with good intention.
The whole argument of protecting the phone companies is disingenuous anyway. The phone companies ARE already protected from civil suites when they cooperate with the government as long as there is either a court order, or the Attorney General certifies that a court order isn’t necessary. When they knowingly comply with questionable government requests that don’t include these legal protections, they leave themselves liable. In this case, that’s what some of them did.
Clearly the other motivation is that the phone companies spend a LOT of money helping elect our representatives. Senator Reid is only one example. So the phone companies have expectations that those representatives will vote their pocketbook rather than their conscience.
Finally, I also have a hard time with the “at war” argument. You can literally justify any “means” for the “end” of saving lives. The most ridiculous example of that “logic” is our current involvement in Iraq. We have laws to guide us in these times of uncertainty, and no one, including the executive branch, can hold themselves above those laws regardless of their justification.
So I’m happy to report that at least for now, the people have prevailed thanks in part to a charge led by Presidential hopeful Chris Dodd. The law suits against the phone companies will go forward, and we will likely have an opportunity to learn more about how extensive the domestic spy program was.
This is the wonderful thing about truth. As a quality of God, there can be no greater power than truth. It will always prevail. There may be those who feel that they can manipulate the truth to serve their own purposes, or those that feel that they can justify their actions based on some other set of principles, or those that feel that they can delay the truth past the point that it will have any affect. At the end of the day, however, you can’t fool God. Those who have chosen to walk in their own path, will be guided lovingly back to the path of truth, whether now or later, and suffer whatever consequences are necessary for their instruction. We don’t always get to see this in action, but when we do, it is a beauty to behold.
“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” II Corinthians 4:1-2