Warrantless surveillance - Back to normal spying for NSA - now it's immunity for telco's .. Fine says Nancy

Democratic leaders (Granny Nancy and her pals at AIPAC) have accepted the idea of warrantless surveillance of international telephone and data traffic .... as long as the target is foreign, (Ho.Ho.Ho.) whilst making b leating noises about ..a special court should play a stronger role ... reviewing the surveillance ....er ....after it has been conducted, to make certain that Americans are not being caught up in the program. (Ask Granny Nancy Pelosi how you identify the nationality of someone using a public / hotel / club / office phone ... er .. magic ?)

Now Mike McConnell ,U.S. National Intelligence Director, and head of the National Security Agency tells the House Judiciary Committee they haven't been conducted wiretapping without warrants on the telephones of any Americans since ... well let's say February (when he got the job) and except when the government has conducted electronic surveillance only after seeking court-approved warrants.

So that's alright then.

He did go on to say that the expanded surveillance powers granted under the temporary measure before the August recess should be made permanent. He explained that the Bill passed in August had ended a "bottleneck", and the N.S.A. was back up to speed about 5 days after it was signed into law.

He also wants legal immunity for the telecommunications companies that secretly cooperated with the N.S.A. on the warrantless program.

Democratic Congressional aides say they believe that a deal is likely to provide protection for the companies.

So that's alright then.

Bizniz as usual.


PS Dubya visited the National Security Agency at Fort Meade in Maryland today and made a poibt of asking Con gress whilst he was there asked Congress to adopt liability protections for telecommunications companies that had cooperated with the government's warrantless surveillance program.