Senate committee approves bill tightening court oversight over gov't surveillance The Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to strengthen court oversight of government surveillance while protecting telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for tapping Americans' phones and computers without court approval. The panel's approval of the bill, by a 13-2 vote Thursday, does not guarantee smooth sailing for the legislation. It still must get the blessing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose top Republican and Democratic members have expressed skepticism about the immunity provision. And the bill remains stalled in the House of Representatives, where it ran aground Wednesday in a partisan dispute over the immunity issue and the broader question of how much oversight power the courts should have over surveillance. The Senate bill would direct civil courts to dismiss lawsuits against telecommunications companies if the attorney general certifies that the company rendered assistance between Sept. 11, 2001, and Jan. 17, 2007, in response to a written request authorized by the president, to help detect or prevent an attack on the United States. Suits also would be dismissed if the attorney general certifies that a company named in the case provided no assistance to the government. The public record would not reflect which certification was given to the court....
Dodd to block vote on eavesdropping bill Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said Thursday that he will block a Senate vote on a White House-backed surveillance bill because it would include legal immunity for telecommunications companies that helped intelligence agencies carry out warrantless surveillance of Americans. Dodd, a presidential candidate, said he will use his senatorial "hold" power to prevent the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act legislation from being considered by the full Senate. The move would effectively stall a measure that President Bush and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell have said is essential to protect national security. Allowing lawsuits to go forward, McConnell has said, could impoverish the companies and make them less able to aid intelligence surveillance efforts. The bill, which would replace a temporary measure that Congress passed in August, was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, 13-2, late Thursday. "The president has no right to secretly eavesdrop on the conversations and activities of law-abiding American citizens," Dodd said. "Anyone who has aided and abetted him in these illegal activities should be held accountable."....
ACLU Sues NM Sheriffs for Targeting Immigrants The ACLU and three other organizations have filed lawsuits against the sheriff's department in Otero County, N.M., for violating the civil rights of Latinos during immigration sweeps in September. They claim the officers raided homes without search warrants and interrogated families without evidence of criminal activity. "Otero County sheriffs broke a basic bond of trust with the community" in the town of Chaparral, ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson told Cybercast News Service on Thursday. "We need to restore policing to its proper mission so citizens and immigrants alike can trust that someone is watching out for their safety." "The enforcement of immigration laws is strictly a responsibility of the federal government," stated David Urias, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF). Sheriff's deputies "do not have the authority or the training to investigate or arrest people because they suspect them of being undocumented." Legal documents filed by the two groups on Wednesday on behalf of five adults and four children charge that an operation executed by the sheriff's department on Sept. 10 violated the plaintiffs' Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal treatment under the law....
Congress orders probe of TB case Capitol Hill lawmakers yesterday called for an investigation into why federal officials knowingly allowed a Mexican national infected with a highly contagious form of tuberculosis to repeatedly board planes and cross U.S. borders. Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman, says he is "disturbed by the apparent poor coordination between [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the Department of Homeland Security that allowed a Mexican citizen known to be infected with a highly drug-resistant form of TB to cross the Southern border 76 times and board an airplane without detection." The Washington Times reported yesterday that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials were warned on April 16 that Amado Isidro Armendariz Amaya was infected, but it took Homeland Security several weeks to warn the inspectors on the border and the Transportation Security Administration....