[PAA-Discuss] [FWD] Legislation on NSA Snooping Threatens Civil Liberties

Wed Sep 6 23:47:23 EDT 2006

-------- Forwarded Message --------

                           Subject: 
Legislation on NSA Snooping
Threatens Civil Liberties
                              Date: 
Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:46:20 -0400

Legislation on NSA Snooping Threatens Civil Liberties

Incredibly, Congress may act this week on two bills that would legalize
the President's warrantless wiretapping program and weaken the civil
liberties of the American people.

After months of expressing outrage at the Administration's warrantless
wiretapping activities, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) has cut a deal
with the White House on new legislation that would --

(1) legalize the President's warrantless wiretapping program;

(2) expand the scope of warrantless wiretapping of US citizens even
beyond what the President has been doing;

(3) curtail Congressional oversight; and

(4) make meaningful judicial review of the surveillance programs more
difficult.

Meanwhile, in the House, Representative Wilson (R-NM), House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Hoekstra (R-MI) and House Judiciary
Committee Chairman Sensenbrenner (R-WI) have introduced similar
legislation in the House.

These bills are bad for civil liberties and for national security.
Members of Congress who have been briefed in secret on the President's
program have said that it could be conducted with judicial review. But
the pending bills would authorize much broader surveillance without
court approval.

Make your voice heard.

Call your Members of Congress and urge them to support a full inquiry
in both the House and the Senate into domestic activities of the NSA
before they consider any legislation.

Without compromising any secrets, Congress should get answers to some
key questions: how many Americans are being tapped, how long do the
taps last, what other information is the NSA or the Department of
Defense collecting on citizens, how does the government make sure that
innocent people are not mistakenly swept in, is the effort worth the
risk to privacy of innocent people?

Based on the answers to these questions -- and only after the
operational facts are fully explored -- can Congress consider narrowly
crafted legislation.

ACTION

1.	Call your members of Congress:

 - Senator Hutchison 202-224-5922
 - Senator Cornyn 202-224-2934
 - Representative Brady 202-225-4901

Ask for the staffer who handles national security/terrorism issues.

Tell the staffer that Congress should conduct a full inquiry into the
President's warrantless wiretapping activities before it legislates and
that the Specter bill (Senate) /Wilson bill (House) would threaten
civil liberties.

Use these words if you feel tongue-tied:

You: Hi, I'm a constituent and I have been very concerned about the NSA
warrantless wiretapping program. I oppose warrantless surveillance of
my telephone and Internet communications. I am calling to urge the
Senator/Representative to oppose the Specter (Senate)/Wilson(House)
bill, which would authorize more warrantless surveillance. Congress
must learn the facts about the program before it can even consider
legislation. Any legislation should make sure that domestic wiretapping
and Internet surveillance is subject to checks and balances.

Staffer: I'll pass along your message. Thanks!

2.	Let us know what happened

Did you talk to someone? Were they agreeable? Tell us at:

 - Our feedback form for Sen. Hutchison
http://www.cdt.org/action/feedback.cgi?membid=txsr
 - Our feedback form for Sen. Cornyn
http://www.cdt.org/action/feedback.cgi?membid=txjr
 - Our feedback form for Rep. Brady
http://www.cdt.org/action/feedback.cgi?membid=tx08

3.	Tell Others

Tell your family and friends to call their members of Congress as well.
You can refer them to this URL: http://www.cdt.org/action/nsa/ so they
can look up their representatives' phone numbers. Feel free to include
links to that page in blogs as well.

Sample Text for a Blog: Congress is poised to act this week on two
bills (one in the Senate sponsored by Senator Specter and one in the
House sponsored by Cong. Wilson) that would (1) legalize the current
NSA warrantless wiretapping program, (2) expand the scope of
permissible warrantless wiretapping in the US, (3) curtail
congressional oversight, and (4) make meaningful judicial review more
difficult. Congress has not conducted a full investigation into the
warrantless wiretapping program and is legislating in the dark.

This is a recipe for a civil liberties and national security disaster -
worse even than the PATRIOT Act. See http://www.cdt.org/action/nsa/ for
more information and call your Senators and Congressmen and urge them
to oppose the Specter and Wilson NSA bills.

--
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--
Michael Clark, Grassroots Webmaster
mclark at cdt.org
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Center for Democracy and Technology
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Washington, DC 20006
http://www.cdt.org/
voice: 202-637-9800
fax: 202-637-0968

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