Mustang Bobby of Bark Bark Woof Woof quotes from
Kevin Drum's article and then finishes:
Any lawyer worth his Maybach would have never opened talks with the government without signing an indemnity clause. To paraphrase a line Fred Thompson made famous, telecom companies -- and their lawyers -- don't take a dump without an indemnity clause. So unless they were amazingly naive and trusting, the phone companies knew from the git-go that even if they were sued for going along with an illegal operation, they and their stockholders would not have to pay for the trouble.
Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly:
Obviously some of this stuff is guesswork, though pretty well-founded guesswork, and bmaz suggests that the press ought to show some interest in the possible existence of indemnification agreements. I agree. If they exist, it would mean the telcos have never been exposed in any way, and immunity would have no effect on their willingness to cooperate with the government in the future. It would also explain why the Bush administration was able to keep the telcos on board so easily even after the Protect America Act expired three weeks ago. Indemnification might be a good subject for some enterprising national security journalist to start prying into.
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