The White House holds surveillance materials hostage

The ongoing White House push for retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies continues unabated, with the Bush gang using secret documents about the NSA warrantless-search program as a bargaining chip.

Except, when it comes to the House, the president’s team isn’t even negotiating.

Neither the House Intelligence Committee nor the House Judiciary Committee has been shown the documents. Mr. Fratto noted that a bill pending in the House contained no provision for immunity from lawsuits and suggested that unless that changed, the House committees would not see the documents.

“If the committees say they have no interest in legislating on the issue of liability protection, we have no reason to accommodate them,” he said.

The White House keeps saying that, and it astounds me every time.

The House Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee, both of which have oversight duties over the administration, have subpoenaed materials related to the legally-dubious surveillance program. The White House will ignore the subpoenas, unless House Dems agree in advance to take up a bill granting telecoms amnesty for laws they broke in 2001.

Marty Lederman’s take was spot-on.

In other words, there is no longer any real or even pretextual justification for denying the documents to the House — except that the Administration wishes to preserve their secrecy for use as leverage to secure immunity from wrongdoing.

Think about that for a second: The Administration is willing to let telecom officials and technicians in on these state secrets — as well as members of Congress who are open to the possibility of cutting a deal with the Administration — but refuses to allow even the House Intelligence committee to know what the nation’s operational “law” of surveillance has been for the past six years. And the only reason for such “selective” classification is to secure political advantage in a negotiation over possible immunizing legislation.

Yep, it’s that ridiculous.

As for the Senate, because retroactive telecom immunity is already moving in the upper chamber, the White House is willing to meet some of its disclosure obligations.

The White House on Thursday offered to share secret documents on the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program with the Senate Judiciary Committee, a step toward possible compromise on eavesdropping legislation.

Fred F. Fielding, the White House counsel, offered to show the documents to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, the committee’s chairman; Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the committee; and staff members with the necessary security clearances, said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman.

Mr. Fratto said that if Mr. Leahy and Mr. Specter so wished, other committee members would be granted clearances for the N.S.A. program and permitted to see the documents. A spokeswoman for Mr. Leahy, Erica Chabot, said he would make sure the entire committee had access.

Apparently all it takes to gain White House cooperation is four months of subpoenas and progress on a measure to let telecom companies off the hook for violating the law at the Bush administration’s behest. Good to know.