Today, my column on the foreign intelligence surveillance bill caps a trilogy of columns on the same subject. The other two are here and here. The basic thrust of all the articles: The telecommunications companies desperately need immunity in order for them to help us with our surveillance of terrorists, and we desperately need that surveillance to protect us. The reason the telecoms need such immunity is because the lawsuits already pending against them are utterly astronomical, and many more such suits would likely be added — and because the companies acted in good faith and did not do anything that thhey had reason to think was the slightest bit illegal.
