This would mean that the Attorney General could simply decree in secret ("in a manner consistent with the protection of State secrets") that any lawbreaking relating to surveillance or other intelligence activities was "intended to protect the United States from a terrorist attack," and any liability for that lawbreaking, civil or criminal, would thereafter forever be prohibited. It would be absolute, sweeping amnesty for all individuals and entities, in government and in the private sector, who broke the intelligence and surveillance laws after 9/11. Neither Vladimir Putin nor Hugo Chavez have amnesty power of that sort. But that's what the administration and Mike McConnell are demanding, and it's what, at least as it pertains to telecoms, wonderful ex-Clinton officials such as the "highly regarded" Jamie Gorelick are working to bring about.
It is not, obviously, a revelation, but this practice of government officials leaving and then being paid to use their contacts to shape legislation on behalf of corporate clients is the sleaziest practice there is in Washington. Can't Jamie Gorelick find a way to earn a living without engaging in the lowest form of legalized influence-peddling on behalf of law-breaking telecoms which now want a bill which would almost certainly, in effect if not explicitly, also bar any accountability for Bush officials who broke the law when eavesdropping on Americans? (And it is worth remembering here that Qwest, unlike Gorelick's client, followed the law and refused to comply with the administration's demands to allow spying on its customers without warrants, even in the face of threats that they would lose government contracts).
It is hard to count the number of high Clinton officials who, like Gorelick, have spent the last six years getting rich selling their contacts and influence by working on behalf of lobbying and other clients to pursue legislation directly at odds with the political beliefs they pretended to have and will, once they are back in power, pretend again to have. Gorelick, needless to say, is an enthusiastic contributor to the Hillary Clinton campaign (as well as to Joe Lieberman's). She'll undoubtedly be a leading candidate for Attorney General in the next Clinton administration (perhaps serving along with Clinton supporter and "foreign policy expert" Michael O'Hanlon). Telecom lobbyist Donilon is also a maxed-out Clinton contributor.
It is hard to overstate how much of a priority FISA immunity is for the Bush White House, and for obvious reasons. Ironically, they were actually proposing the same sweeping retroactive immunity language back in September of 2006 when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, but they could not get the Congress to pass FISA legislation. With the Democrats in control of Congress, and Democratic Beltway influence-peddlers like Gorelick working with them, their chances of obtaining such legislation are now plainly enhanced, and according to both Risen and Isikoff/Hosenball, they are likely to obtain some form of retroactive immunity now that Democrats control Congress. There are reasons -- good reasons -- why the current Congress is more popular among Republicans than Democrats.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
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