Telecom Immunity Sucks, but There's a Loophole

I utterly oppose granting immunity of any kind to ANYONE who participated in illegally wiretapping American citizens, no matter who told them it was legal or how much they were paid, and consider anyone who goes along with granting it a fucking coward.

Nothing new there, I've said that all before. There IS, however, a possible small bright spot in the abortion that is the FISA Amendment Act.

The text of the relevant Section across the jump...

SEC. 802. PROCEDURES FOR IMPLEMENTING STATUTORY DEFENSES.
‘‘(a) REQUIREMENT FOR CERTIFICATION.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a civil action may not lie or be maintained in a Federal or State court against any person for providing assistance to an element of the intelligence community, and shall be promptly dismissed, if the Attorney General certifies to the district court of the United States in which such action is pending that
...
  ‘‘(4) in the case of a covered civil action, the assistance alleged to have been provided by the electronic communication service provider was
     ‘‘(A) in connection with an intelligence activity involving communications that was—
        ‘‘(i) authorized by the President during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on January 17, 2007; and
        ‘‘(ii) designed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack, or activities in preparation for a terrorist attack, against the United States; and
     ‘‘(B) the subject of a written request or directive, or a series of written requests or directives, from the Attorney General or the head of an element of the intelligence community (or the deputy of such person) to the electronic communication service provider indicating that the activity was—
        ‘‘(i) authorized by the President; and
        ‘‘(ii) determined to be lawful;

Link

Look at this part again:

i) authorized by the President during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on January 17, 2007;

We know, thanks to Qwest, that the warrantless wiretapping started as early as 27 Feb 01, six months before 9/11(or at least that's when Qwest was asked to participate).

I'm not a lawyer, and don't play one on TV, but it looks to me like any action, civil or criminal, that focussed on the period between 27 Feb and 11 Sep, 2001, would address matters that were NOT immunized by the forthcoming abortion that is FISAAA.