Bush still not being held to account

Congress continues to fail to hold the Bush administration responsible for years of warrantless wiretaps. The agreement reached in the House today actually expands White House powers and, while not giving telecom companies that cooperate with the government outright immunity, does give courts the ability to throw out lawsuits.

The deal, expanding the government’s powers in some key respects, would allow intelligence officials to use broad warrants to eavesdrop on foreign targets and conduct emergency wiretaps without court orders on American targets for a week if it is determined important national security information would be lost otherwise. If approved, as appears likely, it would be the most significant revision of surveillance law in 30 years.

The agreement would settle one of the thorniest issues in dispute by providing immunity to the phone companies in the Sept. 11 program as long as a federal district court determines that they received legitimate requests from the government directing their participation in the warrantless wiretapping operation.

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