Sen. Rockefeller To Vote Against Forcing Vote on His Own Spying Bill

There we go. From THREAT LEVEL.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) says he will oppose a Republican motion to force a vote on a spying bill he co-wrote, saying that the move to ban amendments to the bill amounted to "political terrorism" by the White House.

"The White House has decided that scaring the American people with unfounded and manipulative claims is in order," Rockefeller charged in a speech on the Senate floor Monday.

Rockefeller announced his vote just an hour before a scheduled vote on a cloture motion which would also set a hard limit on how long the Senate could debate his Administration-backed bill, which provides immunity to telecoms that aided the government's five-year long warrantless wiretapping inside the United States and largely legalizes that program.

The bill re-ups the powers handed to the nation's spies this summer with the passage of the Protect America Act. That legislation expires on February 1, and the nation's spies will no longer be able to order domestic telecommunications providers to start new wiretaps without getting a court order. If the bill sunsets, the nation's surveillance laws revert to the state they have been in for the last 30 years, when the spies operated without court oversight overseas, but needed a warrant when installing wiretaps inside the United States.Link.