FISA and telecom immunity

Re “First job: FISA,” editorial, March 30

Your editorial is misguided. Ignoring a lawless administration that has been illegally wiretapping U.S. citizens since well before 9/11, you urge Congress to give the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt. Apparently, your editorial board has learned nothing from the past seven years -- an illegal war based on lies, torture conducted in our name, politicization of the Justice Department and incompetence exhibited elsewhere.

You urge Congress to bend to the administration’s will and grant the telecoms immunity, and blandly assure us that a congressional investigation will shed light on seven years of lawbreaking.

Again, you apparently have not noticed that the administration is ignoring congressional subpoenas looking into the U.S. attorney scandal. Expecting the administration to go along with any investigation of its conduct is naive. Indeed, the very reason Bush and his cronies are pushing for immunity is to hide their criminal liability.

By all means, fix any technical problems with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but no “basket” warrants and no telecom immunity. The only way to maintain a government of laws, rather than one of men, is to punish lawbreaking, no matter who the lawbreaker is.

Eric Stockel

Los Angeles

This editorial must have been written for you by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the trial lawyers association. As you indicate, the FISA law was enacted in 1978, way before today’s sophisticated and complex communication network existed. Yes, consideration and compromise should be forthcoming by the Democratic House for the good and safety of our country. But most important, the telecom companies should remain exempt. If they have to testify in open court as to how they capture information, the whole program is instantly worthless. I think the Democrats should stop trying to make this a political issue and, for goodness sake, think of the security of this country first. The Senate was correct in exempting the telecoms from the legislation.

Harvey Applebaum

Newbury Park