BORDC Issues The “War on Terror” and The Constitution

“This booklet .. provides the basic tools with which the citizenry can begin to act to make this America again.”
- Nat Hentoff

The Northampton, MA, September 17, 2008 — “The ‘War on Terror’ and The Constitution,” a new booklet by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC), is a concise summary of how key anti-terrorism laws and policies enacted since September 11, 2001, affect Americans’ constitutional rights. The new laws are organized into chapters corresponding to sections of the U.S. Constitution and articles of the Bill of Rights. Stories in each chapter show how the lives of innocent Americans and foreign detainees have been affected. BORDC is issuing the 24-page booklet on Constitution Day, the 220th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.

Nancy Talanian, BORDC’s director and the booklet’s author, sees the booklet as a roadmap to show Americans the current status of their rights and liberties compared to where they should be according to the Constitution. “Armed with that knowledge,” she said, “they can work with one another and with their legislators to restore the essential rights they have come to expect.”

Nat Hentoff, a nationally recognized authority on the Bill of Rights, agrees. “No matter who the next president is or what the composition of the next Congress is,” he said, “the extent and the depth of what the Bush administration has done to the Constitution and to our standing in the world will remain unless and until enough Americans know how much remains to be done-and this booklet by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee provides the basic tools with which the citizenry can begin to act to make this America again.”

According to Talanian, “We now have substantial proof that human failures within our government, not the laws and policies in place prior to September 11, 2001, contributed to the terrorist attacks on that day. Furthermore, no proof has been offered to substantiate executive branch claims that new laws and policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act have made this country safer. One could argue that the government is wasting resources prying into the lives of innocent people and storing millions of their private records in databases and treating potentially all of us as terrorism suspects.”

“The ‘War on Terror’ and the Constitution” (24 pages, $3.00) is available from the Bill of Rights Defense Committee at www.bordc.org/store.php. Download the booklet (PDF, 6.7 MB) at www.bordc.org/resources/war_on_terror.pdf.

In 2002, BORDC spearheaded a nationwide campaign that put city, county, and state governments on record for upholding their residents’ constitutional rights. The passage of eight statewide resolutions and more than 400 local resolutions and ordinances led Congress to strengthen its oversight when it reauthorized the PATRIOT Act in 2006. BORDC’s current focus is on the People’s Campaign for the Constitution, a grassroots effort to hold members of Congress accountable to their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

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Links:

Download high and low resolution PDFs of The “War on Terror” and the Constitution: www.bordc.org/press/war_on_terror.php

Order booklets online: www.bordc.org/store.php

Bill of Rights Defense Committee, www.bordc.org

People’s Campaign for the Constitution, www.constitutioncampaign.org

Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Address: 8 Bridge Street, Suite A, Northampton, MA 01060
Web: www.bordc.org/
Email: info [at] bordc.org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116

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Tagged: Bill of Rights Defense Committee bordc booklet civil liberties war on terra war on terror terrorism

Please Forward Widely.

TELL YOUR SENATORS TO LET THE “PROTECT AMERICA ACT” EXPIRE!

Just before the December recess, the Senate came dangerously close to a floor vote on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s version of S. 2248, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act. That bill was touted as a “fix” of the so-called “Protect America Act” (PAA, or more accurately, the Police America Act). The PAA was rushed through Congress last August, legalizing executive branch domestic wiretapping without warrants.

See how your Senators voted on the PAA here.

Warrantless wiretapping started BEFORE 9/11

It’s incredible that even after learning that the Bush Administration began its warrantless wiretapping program as early as February 2001 — well before 9/11 — Congress would consider rubberstamping the administration’s and telecom companies’ FISA violations. But that’s exactly what Congress is considering. The Senate Intel Committee’s S. 2248 not only falls short of restoring critical Fourth Amendment privacy protections, but it would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that enabled the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, endangering the lawsuits that have been moving through the courts.

Call or Meet With Your Senators Today

The Senate will be back in session on January 22. In the meantime, call your senators. (See Sample Script and Talking Points below.) Find both of your senators’ Washington office phone numbers at www.senate.gov OR find their district office phone numbers on their websites or in your local phone book. You may also call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you to both of your senators.

Meet with your senators. From now through January 21, you may find your senators in your community or nearby at a town hall meeting or another public event, a prime opportunity to gather allies and tell your senator face-to-face to let the PAA sunset!

Senate Returns January 22

The week of January 22, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring the flawed Intelligence Committee bill (containing retroactive immunity for telecoms) to the Senate floor for a vote. A Judiciary Committee version of the bill contains Fourth Amendment fixes and lacks a provision for telecom immunity. Although that bill is far better than the Intelligence Committee version, it is subject to floor amendments that could weaken the bill. Not only that, the president has promised a veto of the bill if it doesn’t grant immunity to the telecoms. The president can’t veto the natural expiration of a law — so letting the PAA sunset is our best chance at ending warrantless wiretapping.

Sample Phone Script:

I urge Senator _______ to restore Fourth Amendment protections of Americans’ private communications and emails by letting the Protect America Act expire on February 8. Only if that move fails should the Senate consider the Judiciary Committee version of S. 2248. There is no national security reason for granting immunity to telecommunications companies that broke the law, as the Intelligence Committee’s bill would do: The only justification is to protect the guilty and to hide the truth from the American people.

Additional Talking Points:

* Congress’s passage of the Protect America Act was a slap in the face to Americans like me who expected Congress to stop the executive branch’s unconstitutional, warrantless wiretapping of Americans. I call on Senator ________ to look into evidence that the Bush administration began its wiretapping program in February 2001, according to research by the New York Times, and not after the September 11th attacks, as the administration has claimed. Let the Protect America Act expire on February 8th, and work on restoring our Fourth Amendment rights.

* After two years of the Bush administration stonewalling Congress about its warrantless wiretapping program, Congress has not obtained the Bush administration’s legal justification for the program, despite subpoenas. It’s time for the Senate to stop compromising with the administration.

* The President promises to veto any bill that does not give retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that enabled the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, but immunity is unacceptable. It is imperative that the American people learn the truth about the program that has compromised the privacy of all of us, with no probable cause and no individual warrants. And that truth will be most honestly revealed through a full and fair judicial process for telecommunications companies.

* The Protect America Act allows the administration to wiretap Americans’ conversations and emails as long as it claims it isn’t “targeting” the American. However, no satisfactory answer has been given to Congress about what the administration does with the records or wiretap recordings. I don’t want to be wiretapped, whether I’m the target or not.

What Happens Next

Find legislation summaries and links here. In November, the House passed H.R. 3773, the RESTORE Act of 2007, which does not contain an immunity provision. If the Senate passes one of the two versions of S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act, then a conference committee will be assigned to negotiate a compromise between the House and Senate bills for the House and Senate to approve and send to President Bush for his signature or his veto. President Bush has repeatedly promised to veto any bill that does not grant retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that supported the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.

What happens next depends on all of us working in coalition to let Congress know that the Fourth Amendment must be restored, and that restoration can start with allowing the President’s flawed “Police America Act” to sunset!

Thank you for all you do!

Bill of Rights Defense Committee:

Nancy Talanian, Director
Hope Marston, West Region Organizer
Ben Grosscup, East Region Organizer
Michael Berg, Field Organizer
Barbara Haugen, Administrator
Web: www.bordc.org
Email: info [at] bordc.org
Phone: 413-582-0110

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Tagged: animals animal rights animal welfare action alerts environment environmental environmentalism environmentalist civil liberties war terrorism war on terra war on terror bordc Bill of Rights Defense Committee Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act fisa paa protect america act Warrantless wiretapping george w. bush dubya news in the news

DawnWatch: Animal Testing — Three famous deaths and a ray of hope 9/12/07
Alex the parrot, Felix the monkey, and Anita Roddick the Body Shop founder who pioneered the mass marketing of animal friendly cosmetics, have died.

Defenders of Wildlife: Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — Forever
Write your elected officials today and urge them to support the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act (H.R. 39), a bill that would permanently protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): Protect Yellowstone and the Greater Rockies
Help block drilling in Colorado wildlife refuge

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Dozens of Allegedly Neglected Dogs in Meigs County, Tennessee, Need Your Voice!
PETA has received allegations of serious neglect of numerous dogs at 1627A Sam Davis Rd. in Decatur, Tennessee.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Tell University of Illinois to Stop Cruel Dog Lab!
Please urge the university to shut down the dog lab and mandate the adoption of FIDO immediately.

Newsletters

Best Friends Animal Society: eNewsletter: September 12, 2007
Events — Here, there, everywhere!

Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC): Dissent is Patriotic: September 2007, Vol. 6, No. 7
Role for Grassroots as Era of Gonzales and Talon Ends; Legislation; Grassroot News; and more!

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): Weekly eNews: September 13, 2007
PETA E-News: Enter PETA Contests to Win Cruelty-Free Gifts

United Animal Nations (UAN): eJournal, VOL. 3, NO. 8 – September 2007
September e-Journal :: Take our disaster preparedness poll

Vegan Outreach: eNewsletter: September 12, 2007
Notes from Vegan Outreach

VegCooking.com: Recipe of the Week: September 12, 2007
Vegan Fettuccine Alfredo alla Carbonara (Now that’s what I call Vegan YumYum!)

Petitions

Urge the Bahamas Government to Ban the Catching and Killing of Endangered Sea Turtles!

Save Chapultepec’s Dogs

Australian Cavy Sanctuary – small animals matter to me!

Oppose the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining

Free Rainforest Researcher Marc van Roosmalen

RESCUE ACTIVITIES FOR WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY and in COSTUDY AND GUARD IN DIVERLAND, AN AMUSEMENT

Street Begging Elephants

Your Daily Click-Through Reminders

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Best Friends Animal Society: Selling Bunnies Is Selling Out

Corporate Accountability International: National Day of Action Today! Will Pepsi “Move the Mountain”?

Defenders of Wildlife: Take Action for Wildlife Conservation on Farm and Ranch Lands

Environmental Defense: Take Action for Tougher Air Pollution Standards

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): Protect the Western Arctic Reserve

Campaign Updates, Press Releases, etc.

Help Get Justice for Bob! (Bob the Tortoise, that is; page last updated 7/19/07)

Bob the Tortoise on MySpace

Newsletters

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC): Dissent Is Patriotic: July 2007, Vol. 6, No. 6

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): BioGems News: July 2007

The Ocean Conservancy: eNewsletter: July 2007

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) Event: Diabetes Video Support Group Weekly Session

The Sierra Club: Club Currents: Volume VI, #74: July 24, 2007

Vegan Outreach: E-Newsletter, July 25, 2007

VegCooking.com: Recipe of the Week (Thai Vegetarian Chicken With Snow Peas)

Petitions

Stop using animals in the circus!

Stop Zoos from killing Tigers for collectors

Support Family Farms, NOT Mega-Farms

Environmental Demands

Your Daily Click-Through Reminders

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Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act

On November 13, the House passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as part of a list of “non-controversial” bills that will be voted up or down in one bundle. The bill is considered a threat to activists, because it expands the definition of terrorist, and could impinge on First Amendment activities. Heidi Boghosian, director of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), said the bill “sets a dangerous precedent for going after people based on the content of their speech.” NLG President Marjorie Cohn said, “The AETA could lead to the prosecution of undercover investigators, whistle-blowers and other activists as ‘terrorists.’” The Senate unanimously passed its version of the bill in September so if the House votes “aye” on its “suspension calendar,” the AETA will become law.

What you can do: Contact your Congressional representative at 202-224-3121 and ask that she or he vote no on the “suspension calendar”—which is the bundle of bills which will be presented to the House of Representatives for an up or down vote. Tell your representative the “suspension calendar” contains a toxic bill which interferes with First Amendment rights.

Kinship Circle also sent out another email regarding AETA today, this one dealing with common questions/myths. One concerns the ACLU’s support/opposition of the bill; KC’s conclusion is that the ACLU did oppose it. Given what I’ve read – both on GreenIsTheNewRed.com and from the ACLU itself – it still looks to me as though the ACLU rescinded their opposition to AETA somewhere between March and October of 2006. In other words, they screwed us. But I’ll refrain from posting the Kinship Circle alert and my comments until I hear more. As a longtime ACLU supporter, I so desperately want to be wrong.

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Tagged: animals animal+rights action+alerts bordc bill+of+rights+defense+committee aclu american+civil+liberties+union free+speech first+amendment censorship aeta Animal+Enterprise+Terrorism+Act