It's great that Dodd mentioned in his Senator floor speech about Greenwald.
Crooks and Liars:
Sen. Chris Dodd spoke out against immunity for the telecoms on the Senate floor Monday night as they prepare to vote on the new FISA bill today and quoted our pal, Glenn Greenwald. (rough transcript)
Dodd: And the idea that this body would grant retroactive immunity in the face of these challenges and deny the courts an opportunity to determine at the mere request of a president….the major companies for years on end can sweep up—vacuum up to use the Church committees language, every telephone conversation, every fax , every email of millions and millions of Americans is a precedent I don’t think we would want to have left as part of our heritage in coming generations. And believe me they will look back to us…Constitutional lawyer and author Glenn Greenwald expressed the high stakes this way, Mr. President and I quote:
‘The Bush administration will be gone in eleven months, but in the absence of some meaning accountability all of this will remain. If these theories remain undisturbed and unchallenged. And all of these crimes go un-investigated and unpunished, that will have a profound impact on changing our national character and further transforming the type of country we are.’
Update: Immunity to strip retroactive immunity to phone companies failed.
Last December, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) successfully filibustered consideration of a measure that would grant immunity to telecom companies that were complicit in warrantless surveillance. But in the Senate today, an amendment by Dodd and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) to strip retroactive immunity from a Senate Intelligence Committee bill failed to reach the necessary 51 votes. The final vote tally was 31-67.
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