White House Says Phone Wiretaps Will Resume For Now

austinhook brings us news that the U.S. government has resumed wiretapping with the help of telecommunications companies. The companies are said to have "understandable misgivings" over the unresolved issue of retroactive immunity for their participation in past wiretapping. Spy agencies have claimed that the expiration of the old legislation has caused them to miss important information. The bill that would grant the immunity passed in the Senate, but not in the House.

Comments

Re:How do they know?

[v1]

because when you're in the evesdropping business, everything is important. Every minute you've missed invading someone's privacy is a travesty!

Re:Resuming wiretaps

[ArcherB]

Which just goes to show you that they never had any intention to stop wiretapping, just to throw a big tantrum over it and then go back to spying on Americans the good old fashioned way, illegally. I hear words like "illegal" an awful lot when it comes to things that Bush does. Illegal wiretapping, Illegal war, Illegal interrogation. Why don't we just call it "undocumented"? Isn't that the new PC word for "illegal"

Seriously. Is it illegal to eavesdrop on overseas conversations? That is what we are talking about here. These calls we are tapping have at least one party overseas. Please, tell me: What law designed to protect non-Americans are we breaking?