Senate Deal on Immunity for Hackers
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 — Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee reached a tentative agreement on Friday that would give hackers legal immunity for any role they played in the breach of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal email account, a Congressional official said Wednesday.
Senators this week began reviewing classified documents related to the participation of the hackers in the security breach and came away from that early review convinced that the hackers had "acted in good faith" while participating in what they believed was legal and essential surveillance and that they should not be punished through civil litigation for their roles, the official said.
Proponents of the deal argued that the failure to provide immunity to hackers would deter them from participating in such activities in the future.
"These hackers deserve our thanks," said Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. "They do not deserve a flurry of lawsuits seeking access to files the disclosure of which would harm our country."
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia lawmaker who heads the Senate intelligence committee, has expressed support for providing immunity to the hackers. "This, I believe, is the right way to go for the security of the nation," Rockefeller’s support for the bill was considered critical to its passage but drew criticism from civil liberties groups because of $42,000 in contributions that the senator received last year from hackers.
Representative John Conyers and other House members described the legislation as a fair and vital balance between competing interests. "To those who say that the bill is too weak on civil liberties, I say that if you trust an independent court and have faith in Congressional oversight, those liberties will not be jeopardized."
Opponents of the deal, led by Senators Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, argued that the plan effectively rewarded hackers by providing them with legal insulationfor actions that violated longstanding law and their own privacy obligations to public.
But immunity supporters said the hackers acted out of patriotismafter witnessing the acts of Vice President Dick Cheney over the last eight years. Senate leaders realized that they were at risk of losing the votes of a contingent of more moderate members who did not want to be left vulnerable for voting against a resolution to stop "another Cheney", officials said.
Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico said Speaker Nancy Pelosi "underestimated the intelligence of the American people and the bipartisan majority in the Congress to understand what matters most: preventing another Dick Cheney."
Mr. Dodd acknowledged that the Cheney argument had won the day. "Unfortunately, those who are advocating this notion that you have to give up liberties to prevent another Dick Cheney are apparently prevailing," he said. "They’re convincing people that we’re at risk either politically, or at risk as a nation."