An historic, pivotal battle over the Patriot Act is now underway. This summer, America will need your help as never before, as we work to restore liberties lost to the Patriot Act, and to stem the tide of further expansions.
We have already begun to fight. With your help, the ACLU won a small victory this week when the Senate Intelligence Committee reversed its decision to vote on legislation to expand the Patriot Act in secret session without any public hearing. And while they did hold a public hearing on Tuesday, the Committee will still be voting on the legislation in a closed door session today.
If we are going to beat back this climate of secrecy and slow the rush to eliminate checks and balances, we will need to work tirelessly and together as Patriot Act legislation makes its way through Congress this summer.
Proposed expansions to the Patriot Act include new FBI powers to order disclosure of a broad array of personal records without judicial approval in advance. Another provision would broaden the government’s ability to monitor your mail.
Not surprisingly, the sponsors of these attacks on liberty are deploying the same tactics used in the 45 days after September 11, 2001, when the Patriot Act was rushed through Congress with little to no debate.
You have helped the ACLU educate and rally millions of Americans who now realize that the Patriot Act went too far, too fast. We’ve been successful in generating a growing clamor of bipartisan concern over the Patriot Act. The time to make our voices heard is now.
In the coming weeks, we will keep you informed of developments in Congress and our essential efforts to make sure the Patriot Act receives real reform, not a rubber stamp.
There will be much work for us all. You can begin to get involved today.
The FBI and local police are engaging in intimidation based on political association and are improperly investigating law-abiding human rights and advocacy groups, according to documents obtained by the ACLU through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed last week.
The ACLU charged that the FBI is wrongfully withholding thousands of pages of documents, and filed a lawsuit on May 18 in federal court to compel the FBI to comply with the FOIA requests. The few documents received to date through the December FOIA requests shed light on the FBI’s misuse of Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) to engage in political surveillance.
The FOIAs seek two kinds of information: the actual FBI files of groups and individuals targeted for speaking out; and information about how the practices and funding structure of the JTTFs may be encouraging rampant and unwarranted spying.
"The FBI is taking tax dollars and resources established to fight terrorism and instead spying on innocent Americans who have done nothing more than speak out or practice their faith," Beeson said. "By recruiting the local police into these activities, they are also sowing dissent and suspicion in communities around the country."
The JTTF partnerships between the FBI and local police, in which local officers are "deputized" as federal agents, are intended to identify and monitor individuals and groups implicated in terrorism. But the ACLU charges that these task forces are allowing local police officers to target peaceful political and religious groups with no connection to terrorism.
Maybe it's just the UK media, but mentions of the War on Terror have been few and far between recently. My prediction is that it will be forgotten in 10 years time, just like the last War on Terror during the 80s when Reagan was in office - you know, the one you mention to people nowadays and they say "WTF?"
