Progressive World Review

The McCain campaign issued a statement today unequivocally supporting amnesty for the telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping the Bush administration spy on American citizens.  As reported by Wired,

It’s official, John McCain still supports amnesty for telephone and internet companies that helped the Bush Administration target Americans for wiretapping for five years, without getting any court orders.

The confusion resulted from a tech policy discussion in New Haven, Connecticut Wednesday where a surrogate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain said that as president, McCain would require strict conditions for amnesty. If by 2009, Congress hasn’t broken the current deadlock over whether to free the telecoms from the civil suits against them, McCain would want hearings, clear future rules and apologies from the telecoms before supporting amnesty,his surrogate said, making a big change in position from McCain’s earlier votes in support of the provision.

 This is the actual statement that was issued,

John McCain through his votes and statements has shown a commitment to winning the battle against Islamic fundamentalists whose quest is to destroy the United States.  John McCain believes that as part of this battle, companies who assist the government in good faith should not be punished, but he also believes that Congress must put forth clear guidelines for requesting the participation of private companies, provide proper Congressional oversight of any such participation and protect all Americans privacy.

After careful and deliberate consideration, fact-finding, and exploration of options, John McCain has continued to support renewal of the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act.  The granting of retroactive immunity supports the continuing efforts of participating companies yet should be done with explicit statements that this is not a blessing for future activities. 

Supporters of amnesty love to make references to “good faith” assistance and how if amnesty isn’t provided, telecoms will no longer be willing to “cooperate” with the government but these are specious arguments at best.  First, the whole point of the concept “rule of law,” is that cooperating with illegal government requests is never okay.  Our constitution and our system of checks and balances are there to prevent government from over stepping its bounds and it’s never the duty or responsibility of any person or corporation to break the law at the request of the government.  Additionally, the original was written with the help of the telecommunications industry specifically so there would be no confusion about what constitutes legal and illegal cooperation.  And as for providing amnesty in order to ensure future cooperation from the telecoms, it is in fact required that telecoms comply with any and all legal requests from the government.

What this is really all about amounts to two issues.  First, the Bush administration has wantonly and repeatedly broken the law and sees no bounds to its power.  From the multitude of signing statements to illegally eavesdropping on Americans, Bush sees no limits to what he can do and no law he’s compelled to comply with.  Second, if your pockets are deep enough you can buy your way out of taking responsibility for breaking the law as Glenn Greenwald demonstrates in his post on this issue,

Just in the first three months of 2008, recent lobbyist disclosure statements reveal that AT&T spent $5.2 million in lobbyist fees (putting it well ahead of its 2007 pace, when it spent just over $17 million). In the first quarter of 2008, Verizon spent $4.8 million on lobbyist fees, while Comcast spent $2.6 million. So in the first three months of this year, those three telecoms — which would be among the biggest beneficiaries of telecom amnesty (right after the White House) — spent a combined total of almost $13 million on lobbyists. They’re on pace to spend more than $50 million on lobbying this year — just those three companies. (emphasis original)

And this is the America that John McCain supports.  Endless war, unrestricted government power and a free pass for large corporations to break the law at will.  Meanwhile, the Americans for whom this country was intended to serve face declining wages, home foreclosure and uncertain futures for themselves and their children.

–Paul Wilden

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