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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Democrat’s
New Spy Bill – Lulling Americans Into False Sense of Security The war on terror and the war on freedom are nonpartisan
issues. Both Democrats and
Republicans alike have consistently voted for legislation that, through
the illusion of protecting our families and our homeland, have actually
removed critical components of the U.S. Constitution.
Will the Democrat’s new FISA Spy Bill be any different? HR 3773, The FISA Amendments Act of 2008, recapitulates
a series of executive checks, requiring the Executive Branch to apply to a
secret court asking for a search warrant BEFORE conducting the necessary
wiretap. This sounds
perfectly reasonable at first glance.
However, under an “Emergency Authorization” detailed in the
bill, the White House is allowed to conduct warrant-less wiretaps within a
seven-day window before seeking the approval from the FISA court.
In other words, if the President believes that an emergency exists,
he then has the authority, under the new law, to conduct surveillance on
literally anyone and he doesn’t need a search warrant or probable cause
to legally issue the orders. Quoting noted constitutional attorney Jonathan Turley from
the new docu-patriotic film, “Washington, You’re Fired,” he states,
“The Constitution says that you need probable cause for a crime, and yet
they routinely ignore it. Why?
Because they want to.” Along with 196 other votes against the bill, Rep. Ron Paul
weighed in on HR 3773 by saying, “This bill will allow the federal
government to engage in the bulk collection of American citizens’
communications. In effect, it
means that any American may have his electronic communications monitored
without a search warrant. As
such, the bill clearly violates the Fourth Amendment.”
Rep. Paul went on to point out that of the 50,000 National Security
Letters issued around 30,000 were issued, NOT for suspected terrorists,
but for Americans. He later added, “When we come to accept that the
government can spy on us without a court order, we have come to accept
tyranny.” [1] These policies of spying go way beyond simply blanket
data-mining every American. The
current administration has shown a certain autocratic willingness to serve
as judge, jury, and executioner and now with HR 3773 the President will
have his seven day window to violate the one fundamental principal that
binds, unites, and defines all Americans, everywhere – the right to
privacy. The President himself admitted to the existence of the
NSA’s illegal wiretap program set into motion on his direct orders.
This stunning admission coupled with whistleblower testimony from
Mark Klein, dates these data-mining and eavesdropping programs back to
mid-2000, well before any terrorist threat and well before the Bush
Administration’s stated need to blanket data-mine every American
citizen… Yet, they did it. Verizon
and AT&T along with a handful of other telecommunications
corporations, willfully violated U.S. laws at the request of the White
House by data-mining the daily communications of millions of Americans.
We would eventually learn from a Defense
Department document obtained by NBC News, that the Bush Administration was
targeting and closely watching Quakers, peace activists, and anyone who
disagreed with his key policies. This
also corroborates a New York Times report released in December 2005, which
states that President Bush had authorized domestic spying and had
bypassed the Secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Will HR 3773 really fix FISA and protect American’s right
to privacy? Don’t be lulled
into a false sense of security by legislation that promises to fix OTHER
pieces of broken legislation. FISA
and a growing number of other spy bills CANNOT
be fixed because they are fundamentally flawed with the notion that we
must relinquish freedom in order to protect freedom. We need to begin anew. The
only way to do that is to completely remove laws from the books that
violate our U.S. Constitution. Those
laws being The
Military Commissions Act, which ended Habeas Corpus; The John Warner
Defense Act, which ended Posse Comitatus; The Detainee Treatment Act,
which protects torture; The Real ID Act rider attached to HR 1268, which
will give us a national ID card; and a half dozen others… Our
freedoms and liberties are not derived and assigned by men or by
governments. They are yours
by the very birthright of being born.
Our founding documents refer to these rights as being
“unalienable.” Put
simply, this means that your rights cannot be transferred or removed –
not by a man, not by a president, and not by a law. “If
we permit our constitutional rights to be watered down out of fear, we
have given up our democracy. Congress must stand firm and defend the
Constitution.” -- Dennis Kucinich [2] The
only question is, “Will they?” -- By:
William Lewis, Writer / www.TakeBackWashington.com -- Endnotes: 1 Revolution Radio - Statement on H.R. 3773 FISA Amendments
Act of 2008 http://revolutionradio.org/2008/03/15/statement-on-hr-3773-fisa-amendments-act-of-2008/ 2 Kucinich Opposes FISA Bill That Infringes on
Fourth Amendment Rights |
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