In one lawsuit, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, AT&T is accused of allowing the National Security Agency to monitor its customers' private communications through special equipment installed in AT&T offices across the country.

Three telecommunications companies have declined to tell Congress whether they gave U.S. intelligence agencies access to Americans' phone and computer records without court orders, citing White House objections and national security.

George Bush has even forbid the telecommunication companies from telling Congress about their surveillance activities. What? Nobody in Congress even knows the full extent of the collusion between Bush and our Internet, cable and telephone companies.

The government has refused to acknowledge what assistance the telecoms provided, and has invoked the "state secrets" privilege to prevent AT&T, Verizon and Qwest from either confirming or denying their participation in the program when requested by Congress.

Not to the press and not even to the other branches of government. Bush is not revealing the extent of his spying to courts or to Congress. The Bush administration has thus far refused to disclose to Congress details of the program other than classified briefings provided to a small group of House and Senate intelligence committee members.

Essentially, Bush is flying free, spying on you and me - without any balance of power or accountability.

The final bill that Bush wants to sign is one that would legalize Bush's eavesdropping program as well as give blanket corporate immunity to the telecommunication companies that conspired with him.

Many Americans believe that the telephone and Internet companies that turned over all of their call records to Bush's administration should not be let off the hook. They were not mandated to offer Bush's spies real estate access to directly into their cables. They were not required to give away our personal information, call records and e-mails to Bush. Therefore, they should not be let off the hook.

On October 26th, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) spoke on the Senate floor about his efforts to stop the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform legislation, in its current form, from being considered by the full Senate and from receiving a vote on the Senate floor:

For six years this President has used scare tactics to prevent the Congress from reining in his abuse of authority. A case and point is the current direction this body appears to be headed as we prepare to reform and extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act....

I believe we were elected to ensure that this nation adheres to the rule of law and to stop this Administration's assault on the Constitution....

The damage that was done to our country on 9/11 was stunning. It changed the world forever....

But when you start diminishing our rights as a people, you compound that tragedy. You cannot protect America in the long run if you fail to protect our Constitution. It is that simple. Chris Dodd, U.S. Senate, Oct. 26, 2007

By granting immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the President's terrorist surveillance program, even though such participation may have been illegal, the FISA reform bill sets a dangerous precedent by allowing companies to ignore their legal responsibilities to protect the privacy of their companies without any basis in law for doing so.

The House version of the FISA bill does not include immunity from lawsuits for the telecoms, after vociferous opposition from privacy and consumer advocates.

"Let the courts decide whether these companies, or some of them, were acting patriotically, with nobility and legally, or whether they were breaking the law." Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said.

"Why is the president of the United States trying to get the telecommunications companies off the hook for their illegal activity?" said Caroline Frederickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union. "He is supposed to be upholding laws, not encouraging companies to break them."

You can make your opinion about FISA known to your own senators here.