[Voptalk] Telecoms that helped warrantless spying could get off the hook

[Peter Thermos]

A bill that would grant immunity to telecommunications companies helping out
in a no-warrant eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush and
reinstate some court oversight to surveillance was OK'd by a Senate panel
Thursday.

The bill states that private companies that complied with government
requests under the warrantless eavesdropping program should not be held
liable if the requests were not within the law. "The onus should be on the
government to ensure that the requests it makes of private companies are
fully supported by the law," the bill states.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/19/senate.surveillance/index.html