If you have not yet written your Senators about the pending FISA vote and their revisiting (again!) the issue of retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies, PLEASE take a moment to get on their Web site and exhort them NOT to support retroactive immunity.

The issue goes beyond civil liberties: this article on communications security, co-authored by a who's who list of computer scientist security experts, raises the concern that the approach apparently used by the NSA poses a grave security risk. It can be co-opted by third parties outside the government to spy on those whose communications are being intercepted, which appears to have been all of us.

Risking Communications Security: Potential Hazards of the Protect America Act

By the way, much of the article is based on revelations brought to light by civil lawsuits against the telecoms that would never have gone forward with retroactive immunity.

Sen. Leahy has announced support for Sen. Dodd's vow to filibuster this legislation, if need be. Use Sen. Leahy's contact tool or call your Senators (toll free number for the switchboard: 1-800-965-4701) to urge them to vote against providing retroactive immunity to the telcos, and to vote YES on S 3907, the Dodd/Feingold amendment to strip immunity from the bill.