Get FISA Right

By: Harry Waisbren

Tomorrow, 12:30 PM EST, is the much anticipated markup of  H.R. 3845, the “USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009“. The event will be webcasted and we will be holding a live “tweetchat” in our Patriot Act Action Hub to aggregate any coverage and to facilitate acting upon what happens.

During this tweetchat, you will find the latest on what is going on at the hearing as well as what others are saying about it on twitter (everything tweeted to #patriotact will show up in the chat). However, we encourage those on twitter and not on it alike to comment directly into the chat room, as our goal is to foster as much conversation and collective action in response as we can.

No matter what happens tomorrow, we want to help spur “flash actions” via Twitter and other new media services in response. Even if things go very poorly for civil liberties proponents (and the country at large) yet again, it will feel good to do something about it—even if it is as little as a chat comment or a tweet!

Update: if you are a blogger, here is our blogger resources page to facilitate writing about the markup and tweetchat and/or embedding the chat itself on your blog.

By: Harry Waisbren

Today’s organizing call went quite well, and it is clear that we are building momentum! The chat log transcript is available here, and we are looking to act on our conversation swiftly in anticipation of Wednesday’s 12:30 PM EST markup.

First off though, thank you to Amy, Shahid, Brandon, Jim, Rebecca, Soren, Korkie, Mark, and Jon for participating on the call (and to anyone following along online). Our group’s strident enthusiasm for the cause is contagious, and if you have yet to join in on one of these organizing calls I couldn’t advocate it enough!

Now, onto the key takeaways from this week:

• We will be holding a live “tweetchat” during the Wednesday 12:30 PM EST markup. This will take place in the Patriot Act Action Hub, and you can participate both via Twitter or in the communal chat room (where tweets will be aggregated). Much more to come on this soon!
• Jon Pincus will be leading online Patriot Act Social Network Activism Trainings, the first two of which are tomorrow 10 AM PST and 5 PM PST
• The key legislative update is the upcoming HJC mark upon HR 3845 this Wednesday, 12:30 PM EST. Yet Reyes, Hastings, and Rupperburger have also introdced HR 3969 into HPSCI. It supposedly largely mirrors the SJC bill but may be weaker in some areas. In the Senate, in addition to the amended Leahy/Feinstein SJC bill (S. 1692), there’s also a Sessions/Lieberman/Bond (S. 2236) bill that would reauthorize with no additional safeguards. Brandon pointed out that the absence of library protections in this new senate bill (originally included by Leahy) could be a “canary in the coal mine” for its general adherence to civil liberties concerns.
• We will be taking steps to improve the “inside/outside” nature of our effort by working dramatically more with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. They are helping individuals and organizations push for civil liberties on a local level, and Shahid explained on the call that they are already “standing by with resources”, including this Community Ordinances Tool Kit and this Model Legislation for Local Government.
• We also are pushing forward on Amy’s initial idea of targeting individual stories pertaining to how people have been affected by the degredation of civil liberties. There are difficulties, however, considering the legal hurdles preventing those who have been spied upon from speaking out, but there were some extremely constructive ideas on the call for ways we can still bring this issue to a much more personal level.

By: Harry Waisbren

Our latest organizing call is today at 1 pm PST/4 pm EST, and you can participate by calling in (dialin number: 1-219-509-8111 Access code: 705723) or by following the call’s live blog in the communal chat room.

It should be quite a call, as we will be emphasizing short term actions we can take in light of the upcoming markup this Wednesday amidst the larger transition in our efforts as we increasingly dig in for the long haul.

One area in which we have progressed in light of last week’s call–and will be going over–are our efforts to increase our coalition’s size while further diversifying our constituency both ideologically and demographically. In particular, we will be discussing launching interactive “tweetchats” through our Patriot Act Action Hub which will aggregate tweets on Patriot Act and FISA reform while simultaneously facilitating participation through a communal chat room.

Such a Twitter-centric strategy to foster communal action is important in light of what Jon Pincus and Tracy Viselli “have been hammering away on all year (1, 2, 3): Twitter is a place to engage with women, people of color, migrant rights groups, and others who are marginalized from other forms of activism.” Jon goes into much more details on such principles in his post Social Network Activism and the Future of Civil Liberties that I could not recommend enough, and his recent coordination with the Privacy Coalition on online training sessions for Patriot Act activism should be a boon for our effort as well!

This strategy would presumably encompass another key takeaway from last week through its capacity to foster communication with those ideologically different than us on issues aside form civil liberties. Furthermore, it could also act as a launch point to propel Amy’s idea of searching for and incorporating “personal stories of individuals whose privacy has been violated.”

Much more to come—-I predict another inspiring call and, hopefully, an even better week for the fight to reform the Patriot Act and FISA!

By: Harry Waisbren

The ACLU has an online campaign that we have added to our action listings on the Patriot Act Action Hub. This effort pushes the House of Representatives to pass a strong bill that would genuinely reform the Patriot Act.

You can help out by asking your representative to co-sponsor the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009 by plugging in their information to send them the following letter:

I write as a concerned constituent. Government surveillance of the communications and activities of innocent Americans has increased exponentially since the events of September 11, 2001. I urge you to support investigations of, and amendments to, the Patriot Act and other surveillance laws that have fundamentally diminished the rights of Americans. This is the best chance to rein in the out-of-control government powers embedded in the Patriot Act since it was enacted.

H.R. 3845, The USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009, protects constitutional speech and privacy rights by:

*   Amending  the national security letter statute to ensure that the government obtains financial, communication and credit records only of people believed to be terrorists or spies;
*   Requiring the government to convince a court that a national security gag order is necessary;
*   Ensuring that the so-called “library records provision” does not authorize collection of library and bookstore records if they contain information on the patron.

As you can imagine, the bill is not perfect. It leaves the Patriot Act’s so-called “material support” provision intact, permitting prosecution of those who work with or for charities that give humanitarian aid in good faith to war-torn countries.  Please support adding a provision that would limit prosecution to those who actually intend to support terrorist-oriented actions.

I urge you to co-sponsor the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009.  It’s time that our government stop violating the rights of everyday people who have nothing to do with terrorism.

I look forward to your response on this important matter.

It doesn’t take long at all to write in your information, so act now on this important cause!

By: Harry Waisbren

Here’s your latest update on Patriot Act and FISA reform in the news:

Michael Anne Conley posts about how mental health privacy is at risk: http://bit.ly/3U9Xii

Marcy Wheeler takes on Eric Holder’s state secrets invocation: http://bit.ly/3RgXSg

Glenn Greenwald writes about how Obama seeks to block wiretap suit through state secrets provision: http://bit.ly/20e45i

Jon Pincus details social network activism and the future of civil liberties: http://wp.me/ppipf-cK

Marcy Wheeler further discusses the “investigations into people who have nothing to do with terrorism”: http://bit.ly/2JD4uc

The Center for Democracy and Technology discusses how the House Patriot Act bill draws broad support on account of National Security Letter fix: http://bit.ly/4ewwX7

JCK Magazine has an exclusive on how the IRS will examine jewelers for Patriot Act compliance: http://bit.ly/1ipAsF

Marcy Wheeler asks asks “what happened to zazi’s product purchasing associates”: http://bit.ly/1HBXSP

Al Jazeera English asks what’s next for the Patriot Act?: http://bit.ly/4siIv

Nat Hentoff of the CATO Institute writes how instead of fixing the Patriot Act, President Obama is protecting it: http://bit.ly/26oYfi