Dodd sends right message on spying

12/7/07
Proponents of the federal government’s unfettered right to spy on Americans without oversight like to muddy the issue with false claims, dubious propositions and appeals to base instincts. But there are basic tenets this country can’t turn its back on, and one of those is that the White House can’t just listen in on your conversations with no reason, and anyone who helps them do that can’t get away with it.
With Congress again set to consider changes to the nation’s surveillance protocols, it can be hard to separate the facts from the conjecture. But when it rushed to pass the Protect America Act in August, Congress forgot its duties to protect people’s privacy and freedom, and instead gave in to fear. Now they have a chance to reverse the damage.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, when he’s not off in some Iowa cornfield, has been a leader in fighting back against that unfortunate law. He has vowed to filibuster any legislation that promises retroactive immunity to telecommunications executives who broke the law by allowing the government access to regular people’s calls and messages. This was a blatant violation of the law, and everyone knew it. This country does not go around providing after-the-fact Get Out Of Jail Free cards to people who knowingly broke the law.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has produced a bill that is better by far than the law currently on the books. It would provide safeguards for ordinary people and allow law enforcement all the leeway they need to monitor suspects, foreign and domestic. It would require data collection to be targeted, not taken in without regard to anyone involved, to be used for anything the collectors deem necessary.
This country demands that law enforcement do everything possible to thwart terrorists, but we don’t subvert the law to get there. Once we begin to chip away at hard-fought liberties in the pursuit of some phantom goal of perfect safety, we’ve already given away more than any terrorist could ever take. To hear Senator Dodd talk, he understands this. His colleagues, including U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, would do well to listen.