A Wired blog has some curious news about politics in America and how the wiretap companies are trying to evade lawsuits by lining the pockets of Congress:

Top Verizon executives, including CEO Ivan Seidenberg and President Dennis Strigl, wrote personal checks to Rockefeller totaling $23,500 in March, 2007. Prior to that apparently coordinated flurry of 29 donations, only one of those executives had ever donated to Rockefeller (at least while working for Verizon).

In fact, prior to 2007, contributions to Rockefeller from company executives at AT&T and Verizon were mostly non-existent.

But that changed around the same time that the companies began lobbying Congress to grant them retroactive immunity from lawsuits seeking billions for their alleged participation in secret, warrantless surveillance programs that targeted Americans.

The EFF has been seeking clarity around these back-room dealings:

Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) today, demanding any records of a telecom industry lobbying campaign to block lawsuits over their compliance with illegal electronic surveillance. EFF’s lawsuit comes as Congress debates letting telecommunications companies off scot-free as part of the hotly disputed “modernization” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Some notable politicians are apparently in no rush to hold corporations accountable for doing a bad job at the dirty work of government. This is likely to increase in probability if the government sees “outsourcing” as the legitimately sneaky (unregulated) way to run military action and intelligence operations at home and abroad.