Telecom~immunity
There are two issues I wanted to touch on briefly before all opportunity to say anything about them at all vanishes. Both tangentially involve the FCC, but in a democracy its all about communication and as the Ramones once sang "We want the airwaves". First up is the issue of Telecommunication company indemnity which is haunting the FISA bill. A month ago the FCC indicated that with the Administration moving to quash any legal challenges to the mechanics of wiretapping, they were not about to start any independant investigation of their own into what the telephone companies might or might not have done on the administrations behalf
FCC declines to investigate NSA-telco link. At around this same time an ex executive from QWest claimed the FCC vowed to punish them for not cooperating in informal wiretap requests
Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm. Lawyers and executives for the Big Telcos had been invited up to capital hill that next week. While the current QWest management and ATT demurred of saying much of anything, Verizon offered that they did respond to national security letters, thousands of them
Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders. A broad array of security requests and well before 11 Sept. 2001. That last fact alone really does add an entirely new dimension to the unwarranted scrutiny of Americans and the shifting justifications proffered. What seems to be being discussed are devices such as Optical Splitter spliced into major trunk lines, by the NSA (see Ars Technica's on going discussion opcit/links). While this is often discussed in terms of metadata, it seems superficially obvious wholesale data collection occurs as this is done
PolicyBeta - Blog Archive - More surveillance than meets the eye. Which is then subjected to secret and undisclosed metadata inquiry. In a era when a U S senator (Richard Shelby) feels he can task the NSA to give him some dirt on (then National Security director) Tony Lake
Richard Shelby and the Politicization of Intelligence. I would suggest that the safeguards and professionalism that the political appointees at the head of the intelligence community like to talk about mean nothing at all. Particularly in light of a Vice Presidential office which lives in an environment of no law at all, or at best their very own special and secret law (treat as top secret compartmented Vpotus only). When such assurances are placed on paper; they lend no value to the paper which is no better than blank for it. The Senate Intelligence Committee which Senator Rockefeller (D WV) chairs prepared a report on the FISA bill which will recommend immunity on the grounds that the telco's were acting in good faith
Companies Seeking Immunity Donate to Senator - New York Times, because they were receiving regular letters from the White House saying the President was declaring this to be authorized activity. Steny Hoyer among others questions whether increasing vague letters allowed what the telcos could plainly see was illegal invasion of privacy of American citizens and asks why they should be retroactively shielded from an examination of this
Steny Hoyer Says Some Strong Words Against Telecom Immunity | TPM. The bottom line is that the FISA bill being put together by the democratic congress would substantially abandon the principle of requiring warrants for invasive intelligence collection on American citizens. The message given to the Telco's is If you work for/with us it can be very rewarding, and you'll never run foul of the law because the realm of the law starts below where we are. If you resist us we will gleefully use the regulatory power of the federal government to damage your business. By stalling the processing of your interests, allowing that of your competitors. No wonder the FCC didn't want to investigate.
Then there is the FCC and their whack-a-mole issue of media consolidation
Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners - New York Times. There is in this nothing but bad faith with the American public. The last time around they made attempts to demonstrate that media consolidation (ownership rules ) would actually increase diversity. No one save for a few media reporters bought this. Studies (including studies from within the FCC which they tried to suppress) did not indicate this. Groups that appeared to be saying otherwise were shown to be composed entirely of astroturf.
This time no one seems to be in confusion of who the winners will be (or the losers FCC Moves to Change Ownership Rules Again | MetaFilter [link from 28Oct added 03Nov07]). The strategy seems only to be a quick push before anyone can react
Informed Comment: Sneaky FCC Must be Stopped. Kevin Martin : like the Victor records dog, he hears his master's voice.
11:56:21 PM  ;;
|
