New law puts an end to Vermont’s wiretap investigation

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(Host) The Vermont Public Service Board will be forced to end its investigation into possible illegal wiretapping activities by a number of phone companies.

That’s because Congress has just approved a new intelligence gathering law that prohibits such state investigations.

VPRs Bob Kinzel reports:

(Kinzel) The legislation includes a provision that gives immunity to telephone companies that provided the Bush Administration with personal phone records, without a warrant, in the months following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Senator Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary committee, tried unsuccessfully to remove this provision from the final bill:

(Leahy) "I have no problem with wiretapping terrorists and no problem with getting orders to wiretap people for criminal conduct but what the president wanted to do is say he can wiretap anybody at anytime on his say so now that’s not the way this country goes."

Leahy says his chief goal was to uncover who in the Bush Administration authorized these warrant less searches of phone records:

(Leahy) "This is not a case of trying to get the phone companies or anybody else I have no problem with letting them off the hook I just want to find out who in the White house on this critical a matter said we are above the law we don’t have to follow the law."

The legislation also prohibits state agencies from conducting their own investigations into related activities by local phone companies.

Two years ago, the state Public Service Board, at the request of the Vermont ACLU, opened a special docket to examine this issue.

ACLU director Allen Gilbert says passage of the new bill effectively ends the Vermont investigation:

(Gilbert) "It is disappointing that the federal government is going out of its way to prevent the public from finding out how their privacy in this case regarding phone information may have been compromised…and I think given the privacy policy that’s in the front of our phone books that we have a right to know that."

Gilbert says the ACLU felt it was critical to find out why the Bush Administration didn’t seek a warrant to get the phone records it wanted:

(Gilbert) "Why the Bush Administration didn’t use that process and use the procedures that have been set up by Congress to get this information properly is one of the questions that would be very good to have an answer to and it looks like… we’re never going to get that answer."

Senator Bernie Sanders also voted against the legislation. President Bush says he’ll sign the bill just as soon as it reaches his desk.

For VPR News I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.

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