[cia-drugs] STOP Specter from Legalizing NSA Spy Program! Use Our Free Fax To Tell Your Senators!

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Please forward widely! STOP Specter from Legalizing NSA Spy Program! Use Our Free Fax To Tell Your Senators! There is still time to contact your Senators to stop Senator Specter’s bill (S. 2453) from legalizing President Bush’s illegal wiretapping program and any other secret warrantless programs the administration wants to use to spy on Americans. Our summary and talking points are online at http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/bordc-act-alert719.php. Stand up and be counted! To send free faxes to both your Senators, click here. BORDC highly recommends that you personalize your fax message by adding to or revising the text (especially the first few lines) to reflect your own feelings. Thank you to everyone who has already sent faxes or phoned their Senators’ offices! Timeline: On July 26, Senator Specter held a hearing called “Time Change—FISA for the 21st Century.” James X. Dempsey, Policy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology and a member of BORDC’s Advisory Board, was a witness at the hearing and had this to say about Specter’s bill: “The Chairman’s bill as it stands today is not a modernizing bill. Rather, it would turn back the clock to an era of unchecked Presidential power, warrantless domestic surveillance, and constitutional uncertainty.” Click here for the full text of James X. Dempsey’s 7/26 testimony: http://www.cdt.org/testimony/20060725fisa.pdf On Thursday, July 27, the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Senator Specter will hold a markup hearing on the bill. August recess. If the committee does not vote before the Senate’s recess begins (around August 4), the bill will be considered when the Senate returns on September 5. In the interim, Congress’s recess may offer opportunities to talk with your Senators about this bill in the district, for example, at town hall meetings or in group meetings at the Senators’ district offices. This is a good opportunity to gather allies to show that your community will not stand for these relentless and destructive compromises to the Bill of Rights. Thank you for all you do to defend our civil liberties! The Bill of Rights Defense Committee ------   Dear Friend, The President’s warrantless wiretapping program violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against wiretapping Americans without a warrant, which must be obtained by showing a judge there is a valid reason for the search. Yet, instead of holding the president accountable, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has teamed up with the White House to draft S. 2453 (nicknamed the “Cheney-Specter bill”), which would legalize the illegal wiretapping program and any other current and future secret programs the administration wants to use to spy on Americans—without ever having to secure a single warrant. If Specter’s Senate Judiciary Committee approves S. 2453 (as soon as this Thursday, July 20), it will head to the Senate for a floor vote. The bill would make the Fourth Amendment almost completely disappear. We must act now! Please phone both your Senators today and ask them to oppose this bill. Look up their telephone numbers at www.senate.gov. You may also click here to send them a fax. Please forward this alert widely. What’s so bad about S. 2453? Plenty! It’s a win-win for Bush, a lose-lose for the people. Right now you can sue the administration for violating your Fourth Amendment rights. But if this lopsided bill passes, all cases involving warrantless surveillance would go to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which is off-limits to your lawyer: Only the Administration’s lawyers are allowed to present arguments before this court. The entire proceedings can be kept secret, including the court’s decisions. Your case can be dismissed for “any reason” with no chance of appeal. But if the Administration’s side loses, it has the right to appeal. And the secrecy doesn’t end there. S 2453 goes even further than the USA PATRIOT Act: by giving the President the authority to search your home and business with no warrant if war is declared, by allowing the President the power to use roving wiretaps without a warrant, and by removing protections, enabling the White House to conduct data-mining of Americans’ private information. It’s a blank check for the president. The President’s program of electronic eavesdropping plainly violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that Congress enacted in 1978 to prevent warrantless domestic spying by the executive branch. But instead of asserting Congress’s oversight authority to protect us from warrantless searches, this bill legalizes them and eliminates any meaningful checks by a court or Congress. If S. 2453 were to pass, the FISA Court could give the White House blanket authorization for its current warrantless eavesdropping program, and any other programs it desires. Individual warrants, one of the few safeguards that protect us from virtually unlimited surveillance, would disappear. It’s not as advertised! Specter has claimed victory by bringing President Bush to the table with this bill. But his bait was irresistible for a president who claims absolute power and refuses oversight: Bush is even dictating to Congress that the bill pass with no changes. Both your Senators need to hear from you that S. 2453 is a sellout of our Constitution. Phone calls, personal visits, and handwritten letters delivered to your local Congressional office are best. Look up phone numbers at www.senate.gov and call your Senators today. For quick and effective communication, send a free personalized fax, here. To start engaging your community in this effort, click here. The American people need the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. Congress doesn’t need to pass new legislation – it must enforce the laws on the books. This bill, and not the Fourth Amendment, must die in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Thank you for all you do to defend our civil liberties! The Bill of Rights Defense Committee __._,_.___ Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. 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