Free Press Releases
******************************************************************Date:
Wed June 9, 2004 9:05 am
Subject: STOP THE SECRET EXPANSION OF THE
PATRIOT ACT
From: Woody Powel VFP President
STOP THE SECRET EXPANSION OF
THE PATRIOT ACT Next Wednesday, June 16th, the
House Intelligence Committee is expected to
consider
expanding the USA PATRIOT Act by slipping
portions of the Anti- Terrorism Intelligence
Tools Improvement Act of 2003, HR 3179, into the
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2005. HR 3179 includes the following provisions
from the leaked Justice Department draft of the
Homeland Security Enhancement Act, AKA
"Patriot II":
A "lone wolf"
provision that applies the Patriot Act's
surveillance and investigation provisions to
persons acting alone. (The Senate has already
passed this as a stand-alone bill.) Penalties
for failure to cooperate with overbroad powers
for the FBI to issue secret National Security
Letters (NSLs) requesting private information,
with no checks and balances Secret use of
information from NSLs in immigration proceedings,
which would deny immigrants their fifth and
fourteenth amendment protections from being
"deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law." There is no
evidence that the FBI needs these provisions.
Furthermore, it is too early to consider
expanding the USA PATRIOT Act. We have not yet
had adequate congressional oversight of how the
government is using the surveillance provisions
of the PATRIOT Act. Some provisions of the
PATRIOT Act are set to expire at the end of 2005,
so Congress will need to review them next year --
when all of these issues can be publicly debated
and analyzed. The intelligence authorization bill
generally contains many important provisions, and
it must pass every year, so it is difficult for
members of Congress to vote against it even if it
contains some provisions they oppose. Therefore,
it is critical to stop the inclusion of HR 3179
in committee.
In this e-mail you will find
Background information What you can do
Links for more information Sample phone
scripts and e-mail blogs Reminder: CLRA
introduction Tuesday, June 8 List of House
Intelligence Members by State
Background Information Last
year, Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Porter
Goss (R-FL) introduced HR 3179, a bill that would
expand the FBI's ability to obtain records
without a court order and wiretap people without
meeting normal constitutional standards. After
various organizations voiced opposition to the
bill, the House Judiciary Committee held a
hearing on HR 3179 last month, where former Rep.
Bob Barr (R-GA) testified against the bill.
After the hearing, it was
reported that Rep. Goss, who is the Chair of the
House Intelligence Committee, was likely to tack
the provisions of HR 3179 onto the annual
intelligence authorization bill, which his
committee debates and votes on behind closed
doors.
You may recall that last
December, another section from Patriot II, which
expanded the FBI's ability to use secret National
Security Letters, was tacked on to the
Intelligence Authorization Act of 2004 without
the knowledge of most members of Congress. It was
passed, and President Bush signed the bill on
Saturday, December 13, the day of Saddam
Hussein's capture by U.S. forces in Iraq. Texas
Congressman Ron Paul called the tactic "a
stealth enactment of the enormously unpopular
'Patriot II' legislation."
To stop this stealth tactic
from being reused, the grassroots must show its
strength and resolve to protect and restore our
civil liberties.
What You Can Do If you oppose
this bill and the undemocratic process of, please
call your House of Representatives member during
a National Call-In Week to Protect Civil
Liberties. Tell your Rep. that you oppose
expanding the PATRIOT Act and do not want the
House Intelligence Committee to tack provisions
of HR 3179 onto the intelligence authorization
bill. (See sample phone scripts below) To obtain
the phone number for your Representative, call
the Congressional Switchboard at 202-225-3121 or
visit http://www.congress.org
If your Representative is on
the House Intelligence Committee (see list at
bottom of this message), it is especially
important that you voice your opposition to this
bill and forward this alert to other constituents
of the committee member.
Links for More Information
HR 3179's Bill Text, Summary, and Status: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.03179
Conservative Opposition to the
Bill at: http://www.spectator.org/util/print.asp?art_id=6644
Bob Barr's full testimony
before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee
on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security's
hearing on HR 3179, which was held on May 18th: http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=15778&c=206
Sample Phone Scripts and E-mail
Blogs Sample Script for Constituents in
Intelligence Committee Members' Districts
Call your Representative's
office and ask for the staff person who.handles
Intelligence Committee issues..
Hi, this is [Your Name] from
[Your Hometown]. I am calling to
urge.Representative [Last Name] to oppose HR
3179, and in particular to.oppose including the
provisions of HR 3179 in the
intelligence.authorization bill. HR 3179 would
expand the PATRIOT Act, and I do.not think those
important issues should be decided behind
closed.doors. Congress must take up the PATRIOT
Act next year when it.reviews the sunset
provisions, and all of these issues should
be.publicly debated next year. Please urge
Representative [Last Name] to.oppose the
provisions of HR 3179 when they are considered on
June.16th.
Sample Script for Constituents
Outside Those Districts
Call your Representative's
office and tell the staff person who.answers the
phone:
Hi, this is [Your Name] from
[Your Hometown]. I am calling to
urge.Representative [Last Name] to oppose HR
3179. I understand that the.House Intelligence
Committee may tack the entire bill onto
the.Intelligence Authorization Act for 2005 at a
closed markup session on.June 16th. I ask that
Representative [Last Name] contact members of.the
House Intelligence Committee and urge them to
oppose both HR.3179's provisions and their
inclusion in the authorization bill. HR.3179
would expand the PATRIOT Act and I do not think
those important.issues should be decided behind
closed doors. Congress must take up.the PATRIOT
Act next year when it reviews the sunset
provisions, and.all of these issues should be
publicly debated next year.
Sample E-mail or Blog Message.
Please spread the word by
telling family, friends, and colleagues to.call
their Representatives as well by posting the
following message.in a blog or e-mail:
Legislation is pending in the
U.S. House of Representatives to expand.the USA
PATRIOT Act -- and there are reports that HR 3179
will get.slipped into an intelligence agency bill
that will be debated and.voted on behind closed
doors on June 16th. Please urge
your.Representative to oppose this bill, and to
oppose allowing these.important issues to be
decided without public participation.
Congress.should be adding oversight provisions
and judicial checks and balances to the PATRIOT
Act, not expanding it behind closed doors.
For more information See http://www.bordc.org/legislation.htm
Reminder: CLRA introduction
Tuesday, June 8 Thank you to the organizations
that have signed on to the Civil Liberties
Restoration Act letter of support. The Rights
Working Group now has a website http://www.rightsworkinggroup.org , which includes talking points on the
act http://www.rightsworkinggroup.org/clratp.pdf . Please call your House Member and
Senators and urge them to support the bill.
List of House Intelligence
Members by State State, District Name,
Party Telephone Alabama, 5th
Robert E. "Bud" Cramer, D (202)
225-4801
Alabama, 2nd Terry Everett, R (202) 225-2901
California, 50th
Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R (202)
225-5452 California, 14th
Anne Eshoo, D (202) 225-8104 California, 24th
Elton Gallegly, R (202) 225-5811 California, 36th
Jane Harman, D (202) 225-8220 Florida, 14th
Porter Goss, R (202) 225-2536 Florida, 23rd
Alcee Hastings, D (202) 225-1313 Georgia, 8th
Mac Collins, R (202) 225-5901 Illinois, 18th
Ray LaHood, R (202) 225-6201 Iowa, 3rd
Leonard Boswell, D (202) 225-3806 Maryland, 2nd
C.A.
Dutch Ruppersberger, D (202) 225-3061 Michigan,
2nd
Peter Hoekstra, R (202) 225-4401 Minnesota, 7th
Collin Peterson, D (202) 225-2165 Nebraska, 1st
Doug Bereuter, R (202) 225- 4806 Nevada, 2nd
Jim Gibbons, R (202) 225-6155 New Jersey, 12th
Rush Holt, D (202) 225-5801 New York, 24th
Sherwood L. Boehlert, R (202) 225-3665 North
Carolina, 5th
Richard Burr, R (202) 225-2071 Texas,16th
Silvestre Reyes, D (202) 225-4831
We thank you for taking these
vital steps to protect your civil rights and
liberties.
Bill of Rights Defense Committee Web: http://www.bordc.org >
Email: mailto:info@bordc.org
Phone: 413-582-0110
This email was cleaned by emailStripper,
available for free from
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm
Donation letter to
support VFP National Bus Tour
Sponsor the Website & Video
Documentary here:
|
