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Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself.

The deal that the House Democrats struck with the Bush White House is far worse than we could have imagined. With a note from the Attorney General, every lawsuit against the telephone company will likely be dismissed. That means Mainers will never know if Verizon and the National Security Agency illegally monitored our telephone and e-mail conversations.

HR 6304 not only grants the telecoms immunity with a note from the Attorney General, but it goes even further. H.R. 6304 permits the government to conduct mass, untargeted surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States, without any individualized review, and without any finding of wrongdoing. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) only reviews general procedures for targeting and minimizing the use of information that is collected. The court may not know who, what or where will actually be tapped. If the Court were to find that the procedures were inadequate, the government could STILL keep spying until the appeals process is complete under HR 6304. Finally, HR 6304 does not require that the Attorney General, Director of National Intelligence or even the Inspector General report on the program to the Congressional Judiciary or Intelligence Committees.

Call Congressmen Tom Allen and Mike Michaud right now.

Congressman Tom Allen: (202) 225-6116
Congressman Mike Michaud: (202) 225-6306

This bill will be voted on TODAY. They need to hear from all of us that this deal is a sweetheart goodbye gift to the Bush Administration. The Bush Administration, and now the Democrats, are saying that they want to ensure that the telephone companies are not bankrupted by all of these lawsuits. What they aren't telling the American public is that the Maine lawsuit and others do not even ask for any monetary damages. What we seek from the court is a ruling that the warrantless spying of Americans is unconstitutional. We want an injunction to make sure it never happens again.

With this bill, Congress is ensuring that warrantless surveillance isn't just part of our past - it's our future too.

Thanks for all that you do,

Alex, Brianna, Ed, Marian, Shenna and Zach

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