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Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself.
Dear friend,
The administration is asking for greater authority to wiretap without warrants in a proposal being floated to House and Senate Intelligence Committees this week. President Bush wants Congress to make significant changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that would allow warrantless spying on calls and communications between Americans and their friends and relatives overseas. We must act now to stop Congress from handing this power-hungry administration even more power.
Take Action. Call Senator Snowe today: (800) 432-1599
The Senate Judiciary committee had issued subpoenas for information about the legal justification the administration used to conduct the illegal spying program. Congress should vote against any proposals to gut FISA before the administration answers Congress's questions about the program. Senator Snowe is an influential member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and we need your help to tell her not to legislate until Congress investigates.
Please call Senator Snowe today: (800) 432-1599
Call Senator Snowe and tell her: "Please use your position as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee to ensure Congress doesn't make any changes to FISA until the administration answers Congress's questions about the warrantless surveillance program. I urge you to demand answers from the administration about this illegal program. We cannot afford to gut FISA until we know more."
Mainers led the way in opposing the administration's illegal spying when they filed a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission to investigate Verizon's role in the program. That first-in-the-nation complaint helped lay the groundwork for a nationwide ACLU campaign against the surveillance program. Senator Snowe should listen to her constituents and demand some answers from the administration NOW.
Here's what the administration is saying, and the real truth.
MYTH: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act needs to be modernized
FACT: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been updated more than 50 times since being enacted in the '70s. It was updated as recently as last year.
MYTH: We need warrants to wiretap foreigners abroad.
FACT: Current law allows foreign-to-foreign communications to be intercepted without a warrant. What this proposal is really about is the right to wiretap Americans - without a warrant - who are speaking with people overseas.
MYTH: FISA has not kept up with new technology.
FACT: There is absolutely no new technology that evades FISA. Even the man responsible for prepping and filing all FISA applications, James Baker, head of the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, has said that, "There's no type of collection that's prohibited by the statute." FISA was modernized by the Patriot Act, by Intelligence Reform legislation and by the re-authorization of the Patriot Act - indeed has been updated 50 times since it was enacted in 1978.
MYTH: Congress knows the facts about the NSA warrantless spying program.
FACT: The Senate Judiciary Committee asked for the legal rationale for the program nine times before issuing subpoenas, and still hasn't received an answer due to consistent stonewalling by the administration and the Department of Justice. The American public and their elected senators and representatives do not yet know the full extent of the warrantless wiretapping program and the extent to which FISA has been violated. So why would Congress grant additional power to this administration?
Learn More.
You can learn more about the administration's illegal spying program and our efforts to stop it by going here: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/31132prs20070728.html
This is not the time to hand even more power to an administration that has denied the legislative branch's constitutionally mandated oversight role and refused to hold the attorney general accountable for a series of contradictory statements. The only thing more outrageous than the administration's call for even more unfettered power is a Congress that would consider giving it.
Please call Senator Snowe today: (800) 432-1599
Thanks for all you do,
Rachel
Rachel L. Myers
Field Organizer
Maine Civil Liberties Union
www.mclu.org
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