US News
Bush urges rethink as House considers rival spy bill
Mar 13, 2008, 16:59 GMT
Washington - US President George W Bush on Thursday urged Democratic legislators to step back from a confrontation over terrorism surveillance practices by not passing a version of a bill that Bush said would dangerously undermine the nation's intelligence gathering ability.
Opposition Democrats in the House of Representatives were considering legislation Thursday requiring court approval for the wiretapping of foreign nationals suspected of ties to terrorism.
A temporary surveillance measure expired last month after it passed the Senate but was held up by the opposition Democrats in the lower House of Representatives, who did not want it to include immunity for telephone companies.
The House is now considering a separate version of the bill would not grant immunity from lawsuits to telecommunications companies that have met intelligence requests for information in the past - a key and long-running dispute at the centre of the House Democrats' standoff with the Bush administration.
'Companies that may have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service not subjected to billion-dollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in the future,' Bush said in a brief statement at the White House.
Bush has repeatedly criticized House leaders for undermining the country's national security in an effort to convince the chamber to pass the White House-backed version of the bill already adopted by the Senate.
The Senate last month approved the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, granting authority to carry out secret wiretaps on foreign communications and legal immunity for phone companies that have complied.
Bush promised to veto the House version of the bill should it make to his desk and warned the 'partisan legislation would extend protections we enjoy as Americans to foreign terrorists overseas.'
'It would cause us to lose vital intelligence on terrorist threats and that is a risk our country cannot afford to take,' he said.
The White House has warned that intelligence may already have been lost after the House allowed the warrantless wiretapping programme to expire last month - a charge Democrats deny.
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Older Talkback
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Mr Bush really is just wanting to protect his big money friends from being sued for breaking the law at the time.
You mean like AT&T?
Go see who the top doners to the dem party are and see who's on the list.
Also, the same case can be made for the dems and the trial lawyers. All they want is to feed the plaintiffs bar.
Then, go read the Constitution and tell me where, in the age we're living, is the expectation of privacy, in electronic communicationS.
Some of us see lawsuits as the secret tax on society that they are. A law specifying limits serves everyone. Why is Bush to blame for that? How does it serve us to serve lawyers, and not the law?
Matt, you need to start doing your own thinking.
The Republicans seem to think that listening in on folks conversations is OK.
The Democrats seem to think so too, as long as the persons eavesdropped on can sue the phone companies.
We are sure fortunate to have such persons making laws in this country.
...is that not enough citizens are dying. Once you let terrorists kill a few folks, like a few thousand, the attitude will change from the cake-and-ice-cream privacy perception to the-Constitution-is-not-a-suicide pact, attitude.
It's a pity folks must die to get there, but there it is. After all, Congress is a body that let slavery run for 90 years and we had to have a civil war to settle the question.
I do hope that you are one of those to die. Anything, to get your small minded, drug induced, claptrap silenced.
Beacuse I do not want to live in the world you would accept.
'...oh...heloo Hirry....how's thit congress goin....ah knooow...ah've been out...nuthin, jes relaxin before mah ree tire ment...y' knooow...a trip hir n theire...new person cummin up an all...
'nooo...ah saw th bill...evesdroppin or sumpin...lahke we don't doo it noow...what??...yur upset?...what aboout hiry?...yue afraid sum folks are bein listened in on?....whoo?....Hillarah!?.....well, mabah....I'd hav t check....why hirry?....what cin sheee do thit that dissappointment of a husband hasn't done already?....oh...thit....an thit...ah neiver thought of thit....an thit...oh sheeeit thit too....fuuuuuc me hirry..who knew!?...
'n hirry...ah cin't hav mah boyhs listenin fer ya....yur gonna be her bitch hirry..nuthin ah cin do aboout thit...or th colored fellas...who knoows aboout you dems.....you cin reallah pick em Hirry!...nooo, ah ain't gonna end dores no democrat...n matter hoow mannah tahmes y ask Hirry...
' n boyh...ah told ya y could a run fer th slot....but ya ignored yur president....whatsammata hirry...ah did reel good at winnin...well..Karl hepped...and ol Dick hepped...NO HIrry!...ol dick nevah shot mah ooo ponents!..well not all o thim....
N hirry, y git out thire an campaign...ah'll hep ya too! A'll git ya sum ectra checannooo hep funds ya lahke so much...an ah'll have thim border guard look th other way at eee lection tahme in Nevada Hirry....Ah'll hep ya son!
Because GWB is the 'rethinker'? Tell this idiot to go back to Texas and live his life knowing the fact that he is by far the worst President in history---hands down. This guy makes Jimmy Carter look like a genius.
Carter - 20% interest rates - Bush, single digits
Carter - 13% inflation - Bush,....less than 4%
Carter - wage and price controls - Bush, free market winner
Carter - Gave away Panama Canal - Bush, so far, no giveaways
Carter - pissed on by the Iranians for 444 days - Bush, threatening to kick their asses
Carter - pissed on by Russians in Afghanistan - Bush, kicking ass in Afghanistan
Carter - drummed out in one term - Bush, beat so called :intellectual' talking heads both times.
This being the case Mr. (im)ppppppppperfect, I think you've been exposed as being just a little-more-than-full-of-sh-t!
'Carter - 20% interest rates - Bush, single digits'
Single digits only because they have no where else to go. The economy is tanking like no other time in modern history, gas if $4.00 a gallon due to the fact that GWB and his boys have done so much damage to the dollar (and of course we know that oil is bought in dollars---less value more cost).
'Carter - 13% inflation - Bush,....less than 4%'
Just wait, food prices skyrocketing, gas prices skyrocketing, etc.
'Carter - wage and price controls - Bush, free market winner'
Free market is working real well, we are tanking idiot due to this type of crap. Oil companies are recording record profits, gas prices $4.00 per gallon. Hum????
'Carter - Gave away Panama Canal - Bush, so far, no giveaways'
Read the contract, it was past time to give it back as per the original contract!
'Carter - pissed on by the Iranians for 444 days - Bush, threatening to kick their asses'
Carter lost less than 25 troops, Bush has lost 4,000 and 25,000 injured---for nothing!
'Carter - pissed on by Russians in Afghanistan - Bush, kicking ass in Afghanistan'
Sorry your revision of history is a bit off. While the move into Afghanistan was the correct move, your boys the GWB administration took their eye off the ball. Why are we still there, we could have leveled the country and have been out of their---now we have created the biggest financial support for Al Queda and the boys by letting them grow the poppies and make the best heroin in the world---smooth move.
'Carter - drummed out in one term - Bush, beat so called :intellectual' talking heads both times.'
History will show that he stole the first election and cheated his way into the second. No matter he will be regarded as the worst in history including President Carter.
Tell all of this crap to those who do not have a job, those who do not have health benefits, those what cannot afford gas, those that work for $7.00 an hour and when this idiot (GWB) took over they were making $21.00 an hour, so in fact it is you that more than 'full-of-shi-, and as usual you are wrong.
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SP4: Here it isMar 14th, 2008 - 14:54:08
Dems weakening America to serve themsleves.
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