Bush To Use Veto Powers For AT&T, VerizonWants full retroactive immunity for telcos...
(
old news - 11:36AM Friday Oct 12 2007)
tags: legal · business · alternatives · privacy · Verizon FIOS · AT&T DSL Service · Tipped by hrobins 
Democrats have been cooking up a new law dubbed
The Restore Act, which is aimed at ensuring that a court order is necessary before the government can conduct electronic surveillance on its citizens. According to the
Washington Post and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, President Bush says he would veto the law unless it gives retroactive immunity to Verizon and AT&T.
But in remarks before the committee votes, Bush warned that he would not sign the Democratic legislation unless it gives U.S. telecommunications firms retroactive immunity from lawsuits for lending assistance in counterterrorism investigations after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The two baby bells have been
lobbying DC hard to protect themselves from any financial fallout from their decision to take part in the administration's warrantless wiretap program. AT&T in particular is facing serious liability after a former technician
documented that the company was handing over consumer Internet data from multiple carriers directly to the NSA without judicial oversight of any kind.