Immunity from a corporate conscience

In an op-ed in today's NYT, former attorney general John Ashcroft argues that telecom companies that cooperated with the feds in illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens should be immune from prosecution in a set of lawsuits filed against them. (The administration is currently trying to shake out a deal with the Senate Judiciary Committee to make this happen.)

The administration, and Ashcroft, argue that the companies should receive immunity

"in only two limited circumstances: if the carrier did not do what the plaintiffs claim; or if the carrier did do what the plaintiffs claim but based on explicit assurances from the highest levels of the government that the activities in question were authorized by the president and determined to be lawful."

Quoth Ashcroft,

"If the attorney general of the United States says that an intelligence-gathering operation has been determined to be lawful, a company should be able to rely on that determination."

Yeah, no shit. Except, we're talking about the Bush administration. Who can blame Qwest Communications for refusing to cooperate due to doubts about the legality of the administration request?

The frightening thing about this proposed immunity deal is the precedent it sets for a presidential administration to commandeer the power of American industries for shady purposes--with no checks from Congress, the Judiciary, or the common sense and legal acumen of those very industries until after the fact, if ever. If this type of immunity becomes common, companies would have little incentive to exercise their own legal due diligence when presented with a questionable request from the government.

That's especially frightening after Qwest's experience with biting the hand that feeds. The company allegedly lost a lucrative NSA contract after refusing to participate in the wiretapping program (Dow Jones Market Watch). Some economic disincentives for refusing + no legal incentives for refusing = no reason to refuse.

A different mechanism--the simple lack of any functional/functioning legal authority--allows Blackwater USA and other security firms to perform legally questionable actions in Iraq at the behest of the feds.

Funny how our free market America-defenders come out looking a little more fascist than democratic in the end.