Many of you aren't going to like this post.  As such I feel the need to preface by saying that my support for Obama is unwavering.  I have contributed what I can, have an online fundraising page, will attend a fundraiser today and will be hosting one myself next month (house parties across America being organized by TPM readers Ghengis and California Paige).  My inclination is to just say fine to the FISA bill as it stands now because my candidate supports it as is if necessary.  I hear the progressive argument that this is a cave and it sets a bad precedent for our right to freedom from unwarranted searches.  So I've been holding off on deciding how I felt about it and looking a little further into what's involved.

I just want to put a little perspective on the retroactive immunity portion and why it scares the shit out of me.  We aren't talking here about Bush going to some telcos and saying "here is a list of 5,000 names, we think these people are suspicious and want their phone records without a warrant".  The wiretapping goes so way far beyond that.  It's astounding really. What we do know is that at least one large carrier, Verizon,  provided a MASSIVE circuit that was dedicated completely for the use of the NSA to indiscriminately listen on ANY call (and text messages and Internet activity) they felt necessary by ANY of their subscribers.  Doesn't that put at least a little chill in your freedom loving bones?

Here is a little info on what was discovered by whistleblowers.  From a Security Focus article

The consultant, Babak Pasdar, stated in an affidavit that during a job
securing the network of a large, but unnamed, cellular
telecommunications carrier in 2003, he came across evidence of a 45
Mbps network tap referred to as the "Quantico circuit" that had
complete access to the company's network and on which the company did
not want any monitoring. The third party, about whose identity Pasdar
did not speculate, likely had access to the cellular providers
fraud-detection system, text messaging system, Web applications and
Internet communications coming from or going to any of the provider's
mobile phones, Pasdar stated in the affidavit.

The unnamed carrier above is Verizon.

Here is some info on what AT&T provided:

These revelations mirror those of
AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein, who revealed that the super
secretive National Security Agency had been given access by AT&T
management to install "splitters" for the Agency hard-wired to an NSA
"secure" room in the company's central office in San Francisco.
According to Klein,

"In short, an exact copy of all
internet traffic that flowed through critical AT&T cables--emails,
documents, pictures, web browsing, Voice over-internet phone
conservations, everything--was being diverted to equipment inside the
secret room. In addition the documents reveal the technological gear
used in their secret project, including a highly sophisticated search
component capable of quickly sifting through huge amounts of digital
data (including text, voice and images) in real time according to
pre-programmed criteria.

It's important to understand that the
internet links which were connected to the splitter contained not just
foreign communications but vast amounts of domestic traffic, all mixed
together. Furthermore, the splitter has no selective abilities--it's
just a dumb device which copies everything to the secret room. And the
links going through the splitter are AT&T's physical connections to
many other internet providers (e.g., Sprint, Qwest, Global Crossing,
Cable & Wireless, and the critical West Coast Internet Exchange
Point known as Mae West). Since these networks are interconnected, the
government surveillance affects not only AT&T customers but
everyone else--millions of Americans.

I also discovered in my conversations
with other technicians that other "secret rooms" were established in
Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego. One of the documents I
obtained also mentions Atlanta, and the clear inference in the logic of
this setup, and the language of the documents, is that there are other
such rooms across the country to complete the coverage--possibly 15 to
20 or more." (Mark Klein, "Reject Amnesty for Telecoms," Electronic Frontier Foundation)

I don't seem to be able to get out of blockquote mode here but the remainder are my words.  Just about everything goes over AT&T lines, regardless of the telco because AT&T built the national network back when it was a monopoly.  So even though Qwest refused to release records their subscriber's data was tapped in transit when traversing AT&T lines.

We will never know to what extent this was used without being able to sue for information.  We can't opt out of our contracts, even though the terms were violated, without paying the fine.  We can't request any refunds for the same reasons.  I'm not particularly concerned about refunds and fines but I do want to know what was gathered, how it was analyzed and what was done with the information.  I want the communications providers involved to know that it is illegal and there should be consequences.  I want the known entity.

I understand that we must not loose this election.  I understand that if Obama fought the immunity portion McCain will try to use that to portray him as soft on terror.  I'm not going to rail against him and his decision here but I'd like to point out that many who voted for the war did so primarily because they were concerned with being portrayed as soft on terror. 

Lets hope this is the last time that argument will work.