(Washington, D.C.) – Today, 34 good government watchdog groups sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them not to allow retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies in the warrant-less wiretapping/national security bill, headed for debate tomorrow, pending review of allegations in an affidavit by Government Accountability Project (GAP) client Babak Pasdar, which were detailed in a recent “Dear Colleagues” letter.

GAP shared Pasdar’s affidavit with members of Congress last week, including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mi), Telecommunications subcommittee Chair Ed Markey (D-Ma), and Oversight and Investigations subcommittee chair Bart Stupak (D-Mi). Those three lawmakers then sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to all House members last Thursday, which summarized the fundamental threat to Americans’ right to privacy detailed in Pasdar’s affidavit. Just yesterday, the House Democratic leadership announced a new proposal to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), without granting blanket retroactive immunity to the major telecoms as the Bush administration has requested.

In their letter, the groups summarize the concerns laid out in Pasdar’s affidavit:

An unnamed major wireless telecommunications carrier may have given the government unmonitored access to data communications from that company’s mobile devices, including e-mail, text messages, and Internet use… [T]he line was configured so that the carrier could have no record of what information had been transmitted. Of equal concern was his allegation that there was no security to protect this line — an unheard of vulnerability in a carrier environment.

According to Pasdar’s affidavit, this private information could be accessed without restraint through a line called the “Quantico Circuit.” Quantico, Virginia is the company town at the hub of FBI, Marine and intelligence operations. The affidavit also details Pasdar’s concern that the telecom had structured its system so it would be impossible to know what had been transmitted through the Circuit, which also had no security or controls implemented.

Congress cannot responsibly act until basic questions about our freedom are answered. The groups posed several questions in their letter: “Who was at the other end of the Quantico Circuit, and what information have they been obtaining? Does such access comport with long-standing federal law? Is the circuit legal? Is its apparent lack of security legal or wise? How long has it been in operation? Who paid for construction and operation of the Quantico Circuit? Was the telecom paid by its recipients for using the circuit? What were the terms?”

The letter pleads with all lawmakers: “You must get answers to these questions to make an informed decision about what the Senate’s broad retroactive telecom immunity provision would sweep in. Congress should schedule hearings and exercise any other investigative authority necessary to determine the truth. But it needs to obtain those answers before voting on any bill that would give amnesty to companies.”

GAP Legal Director Tom Devine explained, “The War on Terrorism is supposed to be about defending freedom. That starts with making informed choices about defending it at home.”