House to Close Its Doors for Spying Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) â?? House doors were locked Thursday night as lawmakers prepared for their first closed session in 25 years to debate surveillance legislation.

Republicans requested privacy for what they termed "an honest debate" on the new Democratic eavesdropping bill that is opposed by the White House and most Republicans in Congress.

The private session was scheduled for nighttime so the House chamber could be swept by security personnel to make sure there were no listening or recording devices.

The last such session in the House was in 1983 on U.S. support for paramilitary operations in Nicaragua. Only five closed sessions have taken place in the House since 1825.

Many Democrats initially objected, calling it a political ploy by Republicans to delay the vote. Indeed, it did: House leaders pushed off the scheduled vote until Friday, just before taking a two-week recess. If passed, the bill would have to be approved by the Senate.

President Bush vowed to veto the House Democrats' version of the terrorist surveillance bill, saying it would undermine the nation's security.

Bush opposes it in part because it doesn't provide full, retroactive legal protection to telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without court permission after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

About 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecommunications companies by people and organizations alleging they violated wiretapping and privacy laws. The lawsuits have been combined and are pending before a single federal judge in California.
The Associated Press: House to Close Its Doors for Spying Bill

Pending in a California court...the home of Pelosi. The SAME person that won't have a vote on the Senates version of the bill that would kill the lawsuits. GREAT choice for Speaker of the House.

Have a good one!:s4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud

About 40 lawsuits have been filed against telecommunications companies by people and organizations alleging they violated wiretapping and privacy laws.

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I'm kinda curious to know how many of the lawsuits were filed by suspected terrorists, and how many were just average folks looking to jump on the "potential violation of rights" bandwagon...

This is the type of shit that pisses me off so much about the U.S. Gov.

Exactly who the fuck are they disillusioned enough to think they are that they have the right to lock the doors and keep the public out of a hearing, in which they are going to pass a bill with the purpose of spying on people! WTF, I am choking on the hypocrisy.

Open, clear, transparent government, in which the popular vote of the people determines everything from laws to elections to impeachments to declaring war.

It is pretty hypocritical isn't it? Hopefully the dems will do the right thing and vote against domestic spying. And protecting our telecommunications industry from being sued? geez

The legislation, approved 213-197, would update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to expand the powers of intelligence agencies and keep pace with ever-changing communications technologies.

But it challenges the Bush administration on a number of fronts, by restoring the power of the federal courts to approve wiretapping warrants, authorizing federal inspectors general to investigate the administration's warrantless surveillance efforts, and establishing a bipartisan commission to examine the activities of intelligence agencies in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Most provocatively, the House legislation offers no legal protections to the telecom companies that participated in warrantless wiretapping and now face about 40 lawsuits alleging they had breached customers' privacy rights.
washingtonpost.com

What a waste of taxpayers dollars.....just so Pelosi can get her mug on the news. :mad:

Have a good one!:s4:

That is indeed sad news. Democrats will surely be yelping victory over this... apparently Obama already is. Goes to show that many Democrats could care less about ensuring national security. They just want to undermine all actions by the Bush administration at all costs, regardless of whether or not it makes us less safe.

If this continues to play out, I hope the telecom companies drag the proceedings out in court as long as possible. With the kind of money they're sitting on, this shouldn't be too much of a problem.