Storm clouds are roiling anew over Washington this week as the impending expiration of the Protect America Act brings surveillance legislation to the forefront of congressional attention once again.Not least among the rumbles of thunder was an address delivered Wednesday by Vice President Dick Cheney at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, in which he urged Congress to make permanent changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 that were only temporarily provided last summer by the Protect America Act, which is set to expire next week.”Fighting the war on terror is a long-term enterprise that requires long-term, institutional changes,” Cheney said. “The challenge to the country has not expired over the last six months. It won’t expire any time soon — and we should not write laws that pretend otherwise.”Included among the provisions Cheney advocated was legal immunity for the telecoms and other firms that have helped the National Security Agency conduct electronic surveillance.”The law should uphold an important principle: that those who assist the government in tracking terrorists should not be punished with lawsuits,” he said. “We’re asking Congress to update FISA and especially to extend this protection to communications providers alleged to have given… Read full this story
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