FISA: Dems Should Grant Immunity

Testimonial immunity. Aha! See what I did there?

The ironically named Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday, approved a revision to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would, among other things, grant immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with possibly illegal government surveillance programs. The bill states that ""The onus should be on the government to ensure that the requests it makes of private companies are fully supported by the law."

I agree that the onus belongs somewhere, but the government is trying to maneuver the onus out of existence. If the telecomms are immune, and the government can invoke "state secrets", who gets the onus?

If the companies were truly acting in good faith, or under coercion, the only way to find that out is to get the telecomms into court. I personally don't care if it's as witness or defendant, as long as they get asked who came to them with these requests. A grant of testimonial immunity accomplishes the President's stated goal and allows for justice.

Of course, what good is testimonial immunity without testimony? Now, where could we get some good testimony going? What's that? 2 words? Second word...ear...hand to ear..hearing! First word...yummy fruit...? Mmmm, peach...Impeach! Impeachment Hearing!