> moves the goalposts to suggest Obama abandoned that objective by casting a yea vote that indemnified telcos for (a) lawful surveillance (b) conducted under the color of an entirely new statute in (c) a bill that mostly consisted of new limitations on FISA surveillance powers.
On (a), how or why can one be indemnified for lawful activity?
The bill to which Greenwald refers does in fact grant retroactive immunity from lawsuits seeking to show that the telco's participation was unlawful.[1] Such lawsuits would occur because other parties to the activity are protected by other mechanisms.
On (b), not sure what you mean by 'under the color of'. Hopefully not a reference to retroactive legalisation.
(c) doesn't seem at all relevant to the specific point here.