My Letters to My Senators on Telco Immunity

I had to send two very different letters, because Ben Cardin voted against retroactive Telco immunity, and Barbara Mikulski voted for it.

To the Honorable Barbara Mikulski:

I have no idea why you were one of the 12 Democratic Senators to vote for Telecommunications Company immunity in the recent vote on the FISA update.

However, I will tell you as a lifelong Democrat, I can find no reason for you to do so.

Given the electoral dynamics of Maryland, you are at no risk, and in any case, you are not up for election this year.

The activity that you voted to indemnify PRE-DATED THE 911 ATTACKS, and the demands of the Bush administration, and were CLEARLY illegal.

Indemnification is an attempt to cover up the clearly illegal actions of the Bush administration and the NSA to illegally spy on Americans.

Absent a convincing justification for this vote, I cannot support you, or vote for you in the future.

This is not an issue of national security. FISA as it exists already includes the necessary mechanisms to make our country secure, notwithstanding DNI Michael McConnell's lies on this matter.

This is not a matter for politics, or for listening to lobbyists employed by the telecommunications industry.

These actions were clearly illegal, which is why Qwest refused this access, and given the intensity of the desire of the Bush administration on this issue, I can only conclude that the purpose of this immunity is to cover up systematic surveillance of political opponents.

To the Honorable Benjamin Cardin:

I appreciate your vote on to remove telecommunications immunity from the FISA update.

This is a matter beyond politics, and it strikes at core of our constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable searches.

Much of the illegal activity in question was taken months before the attacks on 9-11, and it was unequivocally illegal.

The desire for immunity on the part of the Bush administration is clearly driven by a desire to cover up their role in illegally spying on American citizens, which very likely involved spying political opponents.

Personally, I would consider any vote to create retroactive immunity to be unacceptable, and dangerous to our republic.

You can find a list of the Democratic Senators who betrayed their oaths of office here.