Letters: Sen. Hatch responds

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, March, 2008

YOUR March 3 editorial ( "Don't Hang Up on Our Privacy Rights" ) mischaracterizes the FISA legislation that recently passed the Senate by a strong bipartisan 68-29 vote.

The editorial says, "Without immunity, the telecom companies weren't cooperating. This turned out not to be true. Caught once again in a lie, the administration backed off." This is simply not accurate.

In a Feb. 22 letter, the attorney general and the Director of National Intelligence informed the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that, for six days after the expiration of the Protect America Act, the intelligence community lost information since some telecoms delayed or refused compliance with requests to initiate new surveillance of terrorist targets. On Feb. 23, the attorney general and...