Yesterday there was an 6 minute interview (video) with Mike McConnell and Chris Wallace from Fox News. All of those who have followed this saga story know that the Bush/Cheney administration has used illegal wiretapping since before 9/11. I don't intend to go into the details of the deception of the FISA Law before January, 2007 when an agreement was reached with the administration where at least one aspect of the program was brought back under direct authority of the FISA Court. Before this date, much of our nation's surveillance was done secretly by the telecom companies for our government. They obviously were given assurances by this administration that what they were doing was legal but because of national security, title 2 interpretations, and possibly even October 2002 authorization for war provided by Congress. The latter is more doubtful simply because they were not following the prescribed "exclusive" means for foreign surveillance prior to October, 2002.
Join me below to see one small aspect of our cooperation with the telcoms and how it is now directing the debate in Congress.
In the 1978 FISA Law, the telcom companies were granted immunity from prosecutions if they followed the prescribed procedures for collecting data and turning it over to the government. As Sen. Feingold continually refers to the law, it was the "exclusive" method for wiretapping. No exceptions. The law originally allowed a telcom company to wait 24 hours before they got the paperwork from the courts. It was later extended by Congress action to 72 hours. All of this was provided by the Congress in 1978 even though there was strong sentiment to require a warrant before any surveillance was done. The stink from the Johnson and Nixon years and their violations was awfully powerful.
From 1978 until August, 2007 there was no language in the law that forced the telcoms to comply. At this time, there was a patriotic feeling from the telcoms to assist the government in any way to help with the cold war against the evil Soviets. Now we can fast forward to August 2007.
Our telcoms have grown expontially since 1978. Consolidation, fibre optic cable lines, the internet, and then 9/11 changed the "dynamic". McConnell uses this term in the 6 minute interview at least 3 times although with slightly different meaning. The telcom companies after the disclosure of the program on December 19th, 2005 in the New York Times knew that their goose was cooked. It would only be a matter of time before some whistleblower like Mark Klein would give needed information on room 641A on Folsom St and the game would be over. Now there are almost 3 dozen lawsuits against telcom companies pending. Some may be successful but most probably won't be because of our fear mongering that is going on.
With the August, Protect America Act of 2007, the telcoms were now for the first time "compelled" to follow a lawful order from the government to wiretap a line or a series of lines. Again, immunity from prosecution in court is granted if every wiretap is legal and follows the new law. Although there was an attempt to push retroactive immunity into the August bill, it was never done. In fact, the original language from August granted immunity not only to the telcoms but to administration officials as well. Congress at this time was not about to grant the telcoms immunity and certainly not the administration unless they knew how far this program had gone.
Now we finally get to the meat of this diary. Why has the debate about granting immunity to our now fully grown multi-national corporations become such a hot topic? Why did only 29 Senators vote against granting immunity? I have watched this debate since its beginning and read with awe the work of James Risen from NYT's, Marcy (emptywheel) at her own blog and now Firedoglake, and numerous valuable diaries here at DKos.
I didn't provide loads of links and bells and whistle's in this diary because I wanted a good discussion of the one interview that Mike McConnell provides to Chris Wallace. I think the reason is given clearly in this interview.
Note that Mike McConnell gives part of it away when he refers to these "global" companies. They indeed are global. They may be based in the US but the "dynamic" has changed. They are subservient to the $$, or yen, or euro. Patriotic? Maybe? But how far does this go when it concerns the $$. We all know that they recently disclosed they cut off service to the FBI because bills were left unpaid. That's right. They cut off wiretapping under a legal FISA order when the bill for that surveillance went unpaid.
Over the last year I have spent an enormous amount of time trying to get my head around issues in this election. My largest portion of this time has been devoted to growth of the American Empire and its possible demise due to overreach in Iraq, Afghanistan, national debt, income inequality, poverty, and our many trade bills and how they effect the multi-national corporation. I have read books by Chalmers Johnson and most recently John Perkins. Our leaders since about 1945 have created a monster that we now may not be able to control.
What is this monster. It is the multi-national corporations in media, financial, insurance, health care, and most of all the military and weapons production. I get so tired of listening to the ads on TV during prime time viewing from Lockheed-Martin as they boldly say, "we'll never forget who we are working for". Well we all know that it is not you or I or the soldiers on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan doing our grunt work for the military. It is for their bottom line and the Davos members who know the big $$ are being generated from this war machine will make them rich and other nations with vast resources subservient. But I digress.
What I see happening with our FISA debate is that for the first time in our nation's history, we have a multi-national corporation telling our government to "fuck off". They are telling Bush and our Congress that "you promised us "immunity" even though you and I knew it didn't follow the FISA law and now you can't deliver on your promise. Bush, Cheney, and Congress are caught in a bind. Mike McConnell tells us in this interview that the telcom companies can not be "compelled" to cooperate without retroactive immunity. McConnell admits that 98% of all the surveillance is done by the private companies. "We can't do it alone", he says. We need these companies on that wall to quote from "A Few Good Men". But unless our Congress grants them the retroactive immunity, these same loyal, patriotic, multi-nationals (time to laugh now)are telling us to move along. That's right, for the first time that I know of in our nation's history, we are getting "Blowback" from our formerly American communication companies. They are telling us that they are loyal only to the ones that can protect them, eliminate regulations, guard and expand their profits, and finally protect them from expensive lawsuits.
Some may disagree. That's fine. Mike McConnell as we well know is too blunt for his DNI position. He is the wrong man for this position. He should never have allowed the Bush/Cheney administration to place him into this now partisan politic position where he has to deal with the illegal acts of this administration and the communication companies. This interview is too clear for us to ignore. Take it to the bank. Our government is now being blackmailed by the telcom companies because they know that our government with their assistance has done massive damage to our civil liberties and they are not going down the path by themselves. If our House of Rep. can stand tall and refuse to grant immunity, we will get to the bottom of this one crime.