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from: Broadband Reports

House Denies Telecom Immunity
Issue may stay unresolved while Bush is in office
11:03AM Saturday Mar 15 2008 by KathrynV

The U.S. House of Representatives held their first secret meeting in twenty five years yesterday in order to vote on an issue of long-standing contention: Bush’s FISA wiretapping bill. The House ultimately voted to go ahead and pass surveillance legislation that would strengthen the regulations on allowing the government to proceed with warrantless wiretapping. It requires upfront approval for most future wiretapping and creates a bipartisan subcommittee to investigate the questionable wiretapping that took place after 9/11.

from: Light Reading

Were Telcos Justified in Warrantless Wiretaps?
MARCH 14, 2008

Democrats and Republicans in Congress are divided over a critical telecom issue: wiretapping. Are the U.S.'s largest phone companies liable for assisting the federal government in carrying out warrantless wiretaps?

from: San Jose Mercury News

Telecom Companies Try to Buy Their Way Out of Trouble

March 7, 2008
By Robert Jacobson

California’s biggest telephone companies are throwing their political weight around again. But this time the issue isn’t about yet more rate increases or competing with cable TV. It’s spying.

from: Comedy Central

Colbert: AT&Treason
To make your voice heard on the issue of telecom immunity, go to EFF's Action site to send a letter.

from: TPM Muckraker

Bush Says Telecom Immunity My Way of Saying Thanks

March 4, 2008
By Paul Kiel

Bush has been beating the drum for weeks (danger! terrorists! attack!). And finally the Dems seem to be marching in time.

As we noted yesterday, there are clear signs that whatever surveillance bill emerges from the House-Senate negotiations, it will more than likely contain immunity for the telecoms for their participation in the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. But Bush is not a man to settle. He wants more. Here he is speaking yesterday before a gathering of the state’s attorneys general:

from: Huffington Post

GOP To Telecoms: Give Us Cash For Advocating Wiretaps
Roll Call/WaPo | February 28, 2008 10:10 AM

With the House Democrats' refusal to grant retroactive immunity to phone companies -- stalling the rewrite of the warrantless wiretapping program -- GOP leadership aides are grumbling that their party isn't getting more political money from the telecommunications industry.

from: Vox.com

Above the Law: AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth, and the Executive Branch

Jan 26, 2008 at 3:29 PM

The Bush Administration has been pushing hard for the Congress to grant retroactive immunity to telecom companies that cooperated with its domestic wiretapping program, the legality of which is still in question. For most Americans, this story falls in the category of boring, but important. Most aren't even aware that we're facing a Constitutional question that could fundamentally change the way we govern ourselves, and how we hold each other accountable.

from: Slate

Has AT&T Lost Its Mind? A baffling proposal to filter the Internet.
By Tim Wu
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008, at 10:15 AM ET

Chances are that as you read this article, it is passing over part of AT&T's network. That matters, because last week AT&T announced that it is seriously considering plans to examine all the traffic it carries for potential violations of U.S. intellectual property laws. The prospect of AT&T, already accused of spying on our telephone calls, now scanning every e-mail and download for outlawed content is way too totalitarian for my tastes. But the bizarre twist is that the proposal is such a bad idea that it would be not just a disservice to the public but probably a disaster for AT&T itself. If I were a shareholder, I'd want to know one thing: Has AT&T, after 122 years in business, simply lost its mind?

from: CNET

Should AT&T police the Internet?

By Marguerite Reardon

Story last modified Thu Jan 17 04:00:04 PST 2008

A decade after the government said that AT&T and other service providers don't have to police their networks for pirated content, the telecommunications giant is voluntarily looking for ways to play traffic cop.

from: Washington Post

White House Says It Routinely Overwrote E-Mail Tapes from 2001 to 2003

January 17, 2008
By Elizabeth Williamson and Dan Eggen

E-mail messages sent and received by White House personnel during the first three years of the Bush administration were routinely recorded on tapes that were “recycled,” the White House’s chief information officer said in a court filing this week.