Get FISA Right

Thomas Nephew, John Bachir, Jon Pincus, Harry Waisbren, politisal, and Shahid Buttar joined a phone conference earlier this evening to discuss the NSA/Snowden revelations, what to do about them, and how “Get FISA Right” might fit in to revitalized efforts to end warrantless electronic surveillance of all kinds. Here’s a summary of the conversation, informed by the excellent online notes taken by several of us as the conversation proceeded.  Please use comments below to contribute to this conversation!

Overview
After we’d caught up a bit with each other, Jon summed up the new surveillance-related news: (1) the Verizon court order revealing Section 215 (PATRIOT Act) phone metadata trawls, (2) PRISM possibly a data mining or at least organizing system, (3) evidence of perjury to Congress via the “Boundless Informant” revelation showing US data collection (contradicting testimony by DNI James Clapper).

There’ve been a variety of reactions and repercussions. The story is followed closely overseas. Tech businesses are concerned this will damage US “cloud computing” companies because of NSA’s apparent ease of access. Closer to home, a demonstration is planned in Washington DC on Friday, in front of one of the Senate office buildings. Legal responses include a lawsuit by the ACLU and bills by Senators Merkley, Lee, and Paul, who also is discussing somehow bringing a case to the Supreme Court. A grassroots umbrella group called “Restore the 4th” is using Reddit to organize local demonstrations about the issue on Independence Day.

What does Get FISA Right bring to the table?
The discussion then turned to how Get FISA Right (GFR) could best contribute to the uprising around surveillance issues.

Politisal’s response: “history.”  John noted that GFR grew out of what was the biggest Obama group by far – a group that was coming to terms with the fact that he is not on our side on this.  (Some of this history, including a famous open letter to Obama, was detailed in an October 2010 retrospective by Harry.)  Obama’s response to the open letter was to say “judge me by my actions.”  Thomas noted, “we will” — but that while we need to acknowledge a reckoning with Obama, his observation is that people can turn off quickly if it becomes about Obama. “Moderates are giving me the time of day on this issue who usually don’t, but if it’s about Obama, then it becomes about sides and deteriorates.”  Jon acknowledged that was a tightrope, but said we have a history and a brand, and were among the pioneers of activism in a social network setting.  Harry considered it a case study in effective targeting of a political organization; he noted that 350.org is currently doing something similar: targeting OFA volunteers to inquire up the OFA chain about Keystone XL pipeline.  (This is apparently resulting in many of those volunteers quitting.)

So that’s what we’ve done and perhaps inspired — but what unique traits do we bring to the table now?  Some possible answers:

• loose organization: we could do things 501c3s couldn’t do, though organizations like EFF are more aggressive now.(Jon)
• good at getting press:, and anything that brings more press and reinvigorates the story when needed is useful.(Thomas)
• email lists: from the Obama campaign days and the next few years(Jon) narrow,
• focus: on telecom immunity or (Thomas) wider issue of warrantless surveillance; i.e., a little bit wonky

Some ideas:

• let the GFR blog become a forum for activists to tell what they’re doing — radically open up the blog to encourage posts, discussion, learning
• encourage 99% “Occupy” wearethe99percent.tumblr.com-style photo and/or video responses to stock questions: what have you got to hide? what my privacy means to me, etc.  Harry is currently doing something like this with his “supervoters.org” organization: http://supervoters.org/campaigns/i-stand-with-edward-snowden/
• set up online teach-ins, e.g., Google hangouts, on topics of NSA, surveillance, PATRIOT and FISA Amendment Acts, etc; here’s an Occupy example.
• collaborate with “Restore the Fourth” reddit.com organizing around this issue
• …and more.

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We’re having an organizing call at 10 PM Eastern/7 PM Pacfic tonight.   Here’s the draft agenda.  Suggestions welcome, here on the blog or in the PiratePad document — which is also where the notes will be!

• Recap of action items from last meeting
• Should we endorse legislation?  Should we do votes on the blog?
• Updates on Restore the 4th and DC protest
• Where we can add value
• Preparing for NRN
• Working groups
• Tech platform (if time permits)
• Next steps

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 12, 2013

Contact:
Martine Zundmanis – 202-531-0748
Shahid Buttar – media@bordc.org / 202-316-9229
What: Civil liberties coalition challenges secret dragnet spying
Where: the corner of Delaware and Constitution Avenues near Upper Senate Park
When: June 14, 2013 at 12:00 pm

let the NSA know you’re coming at the Facebook event page! 🙂

“Boundless Informant” screen shot; click for larger image. Via The Guardian.

A press conference and rally protesting the National Security Agency’s abuses of law-abiding Americans will be held on Friday, June 14, 2013 at 12 noon on Capitol Hill, at the corner of Delaware and Constitution Avenues near Upper Senate Park.

The action has been called by a coalition of local and national organizations in the Washington, DC, metro area, including the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, Defending Dissent Foundation, CODEPINK, the Washington Peace Center, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Council on American–Islamic Relations-Maryland, Demand Progress, Institute for Policy Studies, Bradley Manning Support Network and others.

“We are outraged that our government has given itself the power to conduct intrusive spying on us through our phone records, emails and other digital media,” said Thomas Nephew of the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition. “It’s no accident that these powers of surveillance were barely explained to Congressmembers, let alone to the general public for an open debate. The only way this extensive intrusion of privacy could occur was behind an undemocratic cloak of secrecy.”

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Just want to refer folks to the EFF—they have a petition to investigate the actions of the government the way the Church Commission did in the 1950s. Sign, donate if you are able and motivated, and keep spreading the word.