Cicero Rautenbach

It is pretty clear that the Telecom companies engaged in activities that gave spy agencies access to all telephone conversations that started and/or ended in the USA or that crossed a wire running through the USA. They have done the same for e-mails and web traffic. We have seen the pictures and schematics of these taps, read the reports from whistle blowers and read the investigative reports.

Do I have a problem with it? No way. I could not care who reads or listens to what I do.

So why am I even bothering commenting on this? Because this is not about what happened but how it happened and about that I care.

The law is clear – In order to allow the use of their facilities for spying, the spy needs to produce a court/presidential order to the telecoms company before they can legally allow them to tap into their network. So the solution seems simple. Produce that court/presidential order to a judge and the case is over. I am even willing to go as far as allow the administration to pick their own judge and hold the hearing in the inner sanctum of the White House to make sure that it stays secret. Not that there should be any secrets to be revealed. The chances are slim that the telecoms executives have security clearances so they should not have access to any secret information. They also have no idea what the agencies did with the information they tapped from their networks so no danger there either.

If they can not produce these court orders, they should confess publicly. May I suggest an extra page in the bill I get from them every month, asking my forgiveness and promising never to break the law in this way ever again. Not even God will forgive you your sins without you confessing them first. Only then can congress consider retroactive immunity and amend the law to make sure that these executives never get out of jail again if they do this again.

It does not matter how much you dress their actions up in die American Flag or how much you scare people into submission, these companies are public for profit companies. The have investors and customers around the world and they operate in the regulated American business world because the American people allow them to do so without too much interference. I myself allowed them to bring a phone and data line into my house, not for spying on me but for providing me with a service for which I pay handsomely and in exchange for that I expect them operate within the laws and regulatory framework of the USA.

If they can produce these court orders then they should have done so months ago before wasting all our time and energy over this. I am however getting the impression that there is something we are not being told. I am really getting sick and tired of watching this on the news – grow up and get a life.