In an editorial, the Paducah Sun calls on the U.S. House to follow the lead of the Senate and pass the Protect America Act. (Emphasis added)

Attorney General Michael Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, in a letter to Congress last month, wrote: "Private citizens who respond in good faith to a request for assistance by public officials should not be liable for

their actions."

 

One might ask why, if telecommunications companies know they've done nothing wrong, they need protection from liability. That's an easy one; the telecoms are already facing about 40 violation-of-privacy lawsuits from customers seeking billions in damages for their role in the federal government's surveillance activities.

 

Setting aside the irony of citizens who are worried about protecting their privacy filing what are certain to become high-profile lawsuits, it is only logical to hold private citizens -- and private companies -- harmless for cooperating with law enforcement agencies at any level.

 

The president wants to make the temporary Protect America Act permanent and include retroactive immunity for the telecoms that aided federal investigators eavesdropping on suspected terrorists after the 9/11 attacks. The permanent act would replace the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that regulates wiretapping.

 

The Senate approved a bill with the retroactive immunity, but the House did not, allowing the temporary bill to expire.

 

The president said failing to act on the bill ties the hands of intelligence agencies and leaves the country more vulnerable to an attack. "The law expired," he said. "The threat to America didn't expire."

 

Bush said he would veto any bill without the liability immunity. If the lawsuits are permitted to proceed, he said, it would expose investigators' methods and "would give al Qaida and others a road map as to how to avoid surveillance."

 

The wiretapping was probably instrumental in foiling terror plots and capturing would-be terrorists, although the agencies that uncovered the plots don't, for obvious reasons, reveal their methods. The fact that the United States has not suffered another terror attack on our shores since 2001, despite numerous attempts, confirms the success of U.S. intelligence efforts.

...
The House should follow the Senate's lead and approve a new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act with retroactive liability immunity for the telecoms.