Last chance to stop immunity and warrantless spying

Last chance to stop immunity and warrantless spying

www.aclu.org

Congress has extended the deadline for renewing the "Protect America Act" until February 15. We are asking legislators to stand up to President Bush's fear-mongering and use this time to make real changes to the bill: reject telecom immunity and "bucket warrants" and bring government surveillance in line with the Constitution.

Tell your legislators to stand up to President Bush's fear-mongering: let the Protect America Act expire and allow the FISA Court to do its job. Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, Bush would not threaten to veto any bill w/o immunity and let PAA expire.

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"President Bush and several companies in the telecommunications industry have knowingly and willfully violated the law, the Constitution, and our rights. Individual court warrants are a Constitutional requirement and a necessary safeguard for privacy rights. Giving immunity to those who broke federal laws undermines the rule of law in our society.

This moment, however, is about more than just immunity for telecoms. The executive branch has now asserted it's right to spy on, kidnap, torture, and imprison American citizens indefinitely for the rest of their lives without an arrest warrant, without notifying them of the charges leveled against them, or even notifying their families that they have been imprisoned.

They have claimed the authority to ignore duly enacted Congressional law, and have claimed that that this authority may not be restrained by the judiciary.

In response, our pathetic and submissive Congress has aided and abided the executive’s desecration of the rule of law by repeatedly covering the tracks and legalizing that behavior. They have repeatedly failed to provide vital checks and balances on the executive, preferring to capitulate rather than fulfill their oath and defend the Constitution.

If these practices are not challenged, they will set a radical and dangerous new precedent that could permanently transform the American system.

It is time to make a stand."--atheinostic

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison

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