FISA Flood '07
Subject: Stop Rampant Warrantless Spying
In August, Congress caved in to the Bush Administration when it made
massive changes to a decades-old law, FISA (the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act), that was designed to protect our privacy and
enforce our Constitutional rights when it comes to telephone and
online communications. Under the changed law, the government is
allowed to engage in massive, untargeted collection of
Americans' international communications, without a court order.
The law allows for no meaningful oversight by either Congress or the
courts and leaves decisions about the collection, mining and use of
American information up to the Bush Administration.
This means that our emails and phone calls to someone overseas are
open to government inspection with no recourse. Even worse, the
government only needs to "reasonably believe" the email or phone call
is to someone outside the United States. They decide, not a
court, which means purely domestic communications can be swept
up, too.
These changes expire in a few months, but Congress is rushing forward
to make permanent changes in the next couple weeks. These unbelievable
spying powers could be made permanent if Congress doesn't hear from
you.
Can you join the ACLU's FISA Flood campaign? We're flooding Congress
with emails phone calls and more, telling them to stand
strong against the Bush administration's power-grab.
Take action at: http://action.aclu.org/fisagrab
Thank you for getting involved!
In August, Congress caved in to the Bush Administration when it made
massive changes to a decades-old law, FISA (the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act), that was designed to protect our privacy and
enforce our Constitutional rights when it comes to telephone and
online communications. Under the changed law, the government is
allowed to engage in massive, untargeted collection of
Americans' international communications, without a court order.
The law allows for no meaningful oversight by either Congress or the
courts and leaves decisions about the collection, mining and use of
American information up to the Bush Administration.
This means that our emails and phone calls to someone overseas are
open to government inspection with no recourse. Even worse, the
government only needs to "reasonably believe" the email or phone call
is to someone outside the United States. They decide, not a
court, which means purely domestic communications can be swept
up, too.
These changes expire in a few months, but Congress is rushing forward
to make permanent changes in the next couple weeks. These unbelievable
spying powers could be made permanent if Congress doesn't hear from
you.
Can you join the ACLU's FISA Flood campaign? We're flooding Congress
with emails phone calls and more, telling them to stand
strong against the Bush administration's power-grab.
Take action at: http://action.aclu.org/fisagrab
Thank you for getting involved!