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Feb 17 19:47 UTC 2006 |
ACLU Online: February 17, 2006
The e-newsletter of the American Civil Liberties Union
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In this Issue:
-- Americans Demand Answers on NSA Spying
-- Patriot Debate Nears Finish, But Battle Continues
-- New Abu Ghraib Photos Confirm Need for Independent Counsel
-- What Will Your Legacy Be?
-- In the States:
* Homeowner Associations Must Respect Free Speech
* Veterans Affairs Nurse Accused of Sedition Over Political Views
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AMERICANS DEMAND ANSWERS ON NSA SPYING
The Bush Administration keeps hoping the questions will stop about illegal
spying on Americans, but lawmakers, the media and the American people grow
more and more determined to get to the truth behind the scandal.
The administration's abuses of power through illegal spying violate the
Fourth Amendment, and the First Amendment and put our constitutional
freedoms at risk.
Congress has a Constitutional obligation to serve as a check against
presidential abuses of power and must demand that President Bush uphold
the Constitution. Leaders on both sides of the aisle in Congress have
called for real answers about the warrantless NSA spying program but we
cannot expect real action unless we continue to make our voices heard.
The ACLU is taking action and you can get involved and add your voice.
This Monday in Washington, D.C., we're holding a national town hall
meeting to discuss illegal domestic spying, presidential power and the
future of our democracy.
Panelists will include former White House counsel John W. Dean, Harvard
law professor Laurence Tribe, ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero,
among others. You can follow the event live online and submit your own
questions and comments for the panel. Learn more about this live national
event at: http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=nH3RJNXzp6IXGw0UfmBvZA..
Illegal NSA surveillance on Americans is only part of a pattern of abuses
that includes Pentagon spying on peaceful protestors and government
surveillance of groups like Greenpeace and PETA as "terrorist
organizations."
This week on ACLU.org, you can read personal statements from some of the
regular American citizens swept up in the government's indiscriminate net
of invasive and illegal surveillance activities. People like veteran and
mother Debbie Clark, who served in the Army for eight years and is now a
target of illegal Department of Defense surveillance simply for being a
member of the peaceful protest group Veterans for Peace. In Ms. Clark's
courageous words, when government officials are suspected of high crimes
and abuses, "vigilant Americans should act."
Please raise your own voice today. Join in our Demand for the Truth. Add
your name to thousands of others seeking real answers and a restoration of
our fundamental protections under the Constitution. And submit a comment
or a question to be read at our live national town hall event next Monday,
February 20, at 11 a.m. ET. Sign the petition here:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=s8OoCrFhDSo_sO_YXQ6gmA..
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SPEAK OUT LOCALLY
Join a "Constitution Vigil" in your area. Next Wednesday, February 22nd,
MoveOn.org is organizing community vigils and Bill of Rights readings
across the country. Join a local vigil, or take the lead and start one
yourself. Stand up that night with hundreds of American communities and
send Congress and your local media a simple message: The time to defend
the Constitution is now:
ADD YOUR VOICE: DEMAND FOR THE TRUTH Sign our Demand for the Truth. Call
on Congress to end the illegal spying and fully investigate the Bush
Administration's illegal spying programs. Add your own comment when you
sign your name, and tell Congress how you feel and why the illegal spying
on Americans and abuse of power must end today.
Selected statements from supporters like you will be posted online and
read live at our national town hall on February 20th.
Sign the petition here:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=KNsPKBiy2pULYU-gqbgKTg..
PARTICIPATE Join us live online next Monday, February 20 at 11:00 AM
ET/8:00 AM PT for our national town hall event: Fundamental Freedoms at
Risk: Spying, Secrecy and Presidential Power.
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Patriot Debate Nears Finish, But Battle Continues
The Patriot Act reauthorization debate appears to be drawing to a close
after some key reformers cut a deal with the White House to reauthorize
the Patriot Act without making the most needed changes to protect our
privacy and freedom.
We expect a vote on this flawed Patriot Act reauthorization the week of
February 27th. While the reformers were acting with good intentions, the
White House has repeatedly failed to negotiate in good faith over the past
several months and refused to allow modest, common sense changes that
would better protect our civil liberties.
The Patriot Act should require that the federal government show that any
financial or internet transactions or medical or library records they
demand are about a suspected foreign terrorist or someone conspiring with
a terrorist or terrorist organization.
The reauthorization bill fails to provide a meaningful right to challenge
the secret court orders under Section 215 of the Patriot Act for medical,
library or employment records that intrude on your privileged, private
information.
The bill also fails to rein in the National Security Letter power expanded
by the Patriot Act's Section 505 which is being used to gather financial
or internet transactions about tens of thousands of Americans without any
individual proof of wrongdoing.
We have made significant progress over the past several months, as we were
able to stop the president from getting the Patriot Act reauthorized under
the radar. Instead, the entire reauthorization process has highlighted for
the nation that the Patriot Act has serious flaws and we know a majority
of Americans support Patriot Act reform. In fact, California has just
joined seven other states and over 400 municipalities that have passed
resolutions supporting reforms to restore real checks and balances to
protect our civil liberties.
Even if Congress has yet to get the message, the Patriot Act debate is far
from over, and the ACLU will continue to demand the restoration of the
rule of law to protect our most fundamental freedoms.
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NEW ABU GHRAIB PHOTOS CONFIRM NEED FOR INDEPENDENT COUNSEL
In response to newly released images of abuse at Abu Ghraib, the ACLU
renewed its call this week for an independent investigation into
widespread and systemic abuse in U.S. detention centers in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.
"We continue to see undeniable evidence that abuse and torture has been
widespread and systematic, yet high level government officials have not
been held accountable for creating the policies that led to these
atrocities," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "We
need to look up the chain of military command, because when the rule of
law is not followed all of our personal freedoms are threatened. President
Bush should appoint an independent counsel to uncover the full truth about
the extent of the abuse and who is ultimately responsible."
The ACLU has sued the Department of Defense for withholding photographs
and videos depicting abuse at Abu Ghraib and other detention facilities.
In September, a federal judge in New York ruled that the government must
turn over the Abu Ghraib images, as well as other visual evidence of
abuse, noting "the freedoms that we champion are as important to our
success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our
troops are armed." The decision is currently on appeal by the government.
The ACLU does not know whether the new photos aired by the Australian
"Dateline" program are the same photos being withheld by the government.
"The public has a right to know the full truth about the treatment of
detainees not just in Abu Ghraib but elsewhere in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Guantánamo Bay," said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. "Instead of continuing to
deny the widespread abuse, the government must hold relevant officials
accountable for this abuse."
The ACLU has been in the courts since 2003 seeking the release of evidence
of abuse. To date, almost 90,000 pages of government documents have been
released in response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
lawsuit. The documents have revealed that harsh interrogation techniques
were used indiscriminately in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, and
ultimately led to cases of abuse and torture.
For more on the ACLU's FOIA lawsuit, go to:
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=1uZaJw2iZTohVaj1lR1h1Q..
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HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATIONS MUST RESPECT FREE SPEECH
In an appeals court decision last week, new rights are provided for more
than one million residents of private communities governed by homeowners
associations in the state.
"For the first time anywhere in the United States, an appellate court has
ruled that such private communities are 'constitutional actors' and must
therefore respect their members' freedom of speech," said Rutgers Law
Professor Frank Askin, lead counsel in the case. "The court recognized
that just as shopping malls are the new public square, these associations
have become and act, for all practical purposes, like municipal entities
unto themselves."
The case involved the 10,000-resident community of Twin Rivers in East
Windsor, where the rights to post political signs on members' lawns, to
equal access to the community newspaper run by the Board of Trustees, and
to equitable access to the community room for meetings for dissidents. The
complaint raised claims under the free speech protections of the New
Jersey Constitution.
The opinion by the appellate panel relied heavily upon earlier decisions
of the New Jersey Supreme Court which held that privately owned and
operated shopping malls were public forums under the State Constitution,
and had to allow non-profit advocacy groups to gather petitions and
distribute educational material on mall property.
Building on those cases, the court held that private residential
communities could no more deny free speech to its residents to discuss
public issues than municipal governments.
The case is a national landmark and was awaited by homeowners groups
across the country in hopes of emulating a similar decision.
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VETERANS AFFAIRS NURSE ACCUSED OF SEDITION OVER POLITICAL VIEWS
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs investigated a federal employee
who published an editorial critical of the Bush administration in a local
newspaper. The ACLU is demanding an explanation.
In her letter to the weekly Alibi, Laura Berg, a clinical nurse
specialist, criticized the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane
Katrina and the Iraq War, noting that, "as a VA nurse working with
returning...vets, I know the public has no sense of the additional
devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder."
She urged readers to "act forcefully to remove a government administration
playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit."
In September 2005, VA Information Security employees seized Berg's office
computer because they claimed "government equipment was used
inappropriately...during government time for drafting an editorial
letter." No evidence was recovered to support that belief.
"The VA had no reason to suspect Laura Berg used government resources to
produce her editorial," said ACLU of New Mexico Executive Director Peter
Simonson. "She signed the letter as a private individual. From all
appearances, the seizure of her work computer was an act of retaliation
and a hardball attempt to scare Laura into silence."
In a November 9th memorandum to Berg, Mel Hooker, Chief of Human Resource
Management Service at the VA, conceded that no evidence was found
implicating the use of Berg's work computer in the writing of the
editorial. However, he justified the investigation by saying "the Agency
is bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially
represents sedition."
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American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, New York 10004-2400
http://action.aclu.org/site/R?i=7JEhYEV7HP7v7TxASH3ngA..
Gerri Engel and Jed Miller, Editors
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