The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that three House Commerce Committee members—John Dingell, Ed Markey, and Bart Stupak—say that Congress must not “vote in the dark” on immunity for the telecommunications industry from lawsuits over spying on Americans.The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that three House Commerce Committee members—John Dingell, Ed Markey, and Bart Stupak—say that Congress must not “vote in the dark” on immunity for the telecommunications industry from lawsuits over spying on Americans.

The Bush Administration is pressuring lawmakers to pass retroactive immunity on telecoms as part of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) legislation pending in Congress.

Another whistleblower has disclosed that the government had been granted an open gateway to customer information and calls by a major telecommunications company.

Whistleblower Babak Pasdar has charged "at least one major wireless telecommunications giant" of giving "a Governmental entity access to every communication coming through that company's infrastructure, including every e-mail, Internet use, document transmission, video, and text message, as well as the ability to listen in on any phone call."

Brian Beutler of the Media Consortium reports that the committee had known about Pasdar for some time. Pasdar has come forward publicly now because the Bush administration has blocked every effort to investigate his charges privately.

Padsar’s allegations echo those of retired AT&T technician Mark Klein, who came forward accusing his company of providing the government with access to customer information, Beutler reports.

In a letter released on Thursday, Dingell, Markey, and Stupak wrote, "Members should be given adequate time to properly evaluate the separate question of retroactive immunity."

The letter can be accessed here.

Beutler also reports that the Government Accountability Project has released some documents about Pasdar's FISA allegations. They can be accessed here and here. The second one, crucially, is a Pasdar-signed affidavit describing the illegal surveillance.

"When you put Mr. Pasdar's information together with that of AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein, there is troubling evidence of telecom misconduct in massive domestic surveillance of ordinary Americans," said Cindy Cohn, Legal Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a press release. "Congress needs to have hearings and get some answers about whether American telecommunications companies are helping the government to illegally spy on millions of us. Retroactive immunity for telecom companies now ought to be off the table in the ongoing FISA debate."