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Jul 10th, 2008
Posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 8:00pm

Jameel Jaffer Explains the ACLU's FISA Lawsuit

This afternoon, Salon's Glenn Greenwald interviewed Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU's National Security Project, about our FISA Amendments Act lawsuit. Give it a listen for the explanation behind our federal lawsuit, Amnesty v. McConnell, and our motion to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

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15 Responses to "Jameel Jaffer Explains the ACLU's FISA Lawsuit"

  1. leslie Says:

    I believe that passing this bill is the right step to protect our country from terrorists, who want to kill us!!!!

  2. Frank Says:

    The Democrats have folded again and now it is up to the people. To acquiesce to a lame duck President with an approval rating in the 20's is a disgrace.

    I complain about people that buy into the GOP's fear tactics (like poster Leslie) and here are people I voted for doing the same. They were scared to get their hands dirty on national security issue in an election year.

  3. Chip Says:

    Even more evidence that the ACLU is a bunch of incompetent individuals. I don't care if the government listens to my phone calls, largely because I have nothing to hide. I am so sick of these liberals protecting the rights of those who want to kill us. Progress would be made if the ACLU was destroyed and its members put on a terrorist watch list.

  4. Dennis Riccio Says:

    Amen to that!! This bill will keep us protected!!! Right on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. Fred Says:

    Dennis, Chip, Leslie - you obviously care nothing about individual rights and take comfort in FISA 'protecting us'. All FISA is about is taking away liberty of citizens. You understand nothing about the Consititution. We should be afraid of Government, especially this President, not terrorists. The President belongs in jail!

  6. Bee Says:

    Chip...what's next? Big Brother checking your bank to see where you spend your money, the classes your children take in school...the color underwear you choose, all to make sure you're not a "terrorist"?? You fail to see this is yet ANOTHER governmental step towards absolute control, and removal of all our freedoms that have been hard won to begin with. If you'd like your entire life run by the government, move to a dictator- run country!

    Do you actually understand what's happening here? Do you realize that yet another freedom is being lost? Do you understand that while this particular issue may not affect you, the next one may?

  7. wheeties Says:

    Good point, Bee. Though actually, recent studies have shown that terrorists can easily be identified their anti-American boxer briefs, so we'd all be safer if the government would increase underwear surveillance.

    If this bill is making us safer, why do I feel so scared? Democracy is slowly slipping away...

  8. chip Says:

    Bee… That’s quite a quantum leap to go from listening to phone conversations of suspected terrorist to the color of my underwear, don’t you think you are just a little bit of a conspiracy theorist who is taking spoon fed information from the ACLU who is targeting those who lack the competence to think for themselves. Seems to me that only one of these is conducive to the protection of our country.
    You may want to educate yourself on which party is moving away from dictatorship and which one is moving closer. Last time I checked it was the republicans who wanted more privatization and less big government, less taxes and redistribution of wealth.
    If I have to choose between the government listening to my phone conversations with business clients and a terrorist killing everyone in my city with nerve gas, I choose the former.
    Who is profiting from this lawsuit. Seems the ACLU is just going to waste our tax $ on a lawsuit so they can pursue their own political agenda, that doesn’t seem like they are supporting the liberties of all, in fact that is called self interest above all else.

  9. CHIPE Says:

    Bee… That’s quite a quantum leap to go from listening to phone conversations of suspected terrorist to the color of my underwear, don’t you think you are just a little bit of a conspiracy theorist who is taking spoon fed information from the ACLU who is targeting those who lack the competence to think for themselves. Seems to me that only one of these is conducive to the protection of our country.
    You may want to educate yourself on which party is moving away from dictatorship and which one is moving closer. Last time I checked it was the republicans who wanted more privatization and less big government, less taxes and redistribution of wealth.
    If I have to choose between the government listening to my phone conversations with business clients and a terrorist killing everyone in my city with nerve gas, I choose the former.
    Who is profiting from this lawsuit. Seems the ACLU is just going to waste our tax $ on a lawsuit so they can pursue their own political agenda, that doesn’t seem like they are supporting the liberties of all, in fact that is called self interest above all else.

  10. scientella Says:

    GOOD FOR YOU.

    Thank GOODNESS FOR YOU.

    The world, US, China, Russia are becoming facist.

    There is little to stop this trend.

  11. Brian Says:

    Am I the only one here who sees that Congress has passed a law that protects an act after it has happened, and the Constitution has specifically stated that Congress shall make no law after the fact, i.e. no ex post facto law?

    Isn't this immunity clause exactly that? An ex post facto law? Where are all the Consitutional scholars and lawyers screaming about this?

    Congress did the same thing with the copyright law, except they used a trcik to get around it (extending copyrights a year at a time to keeps them from expiring until they got the law they wanted).

  12. Chipe Says:

    I guess the aclu deletes comments if they don't like them, seems like that is contrary to their mission statement. My statement appeared and was removed, and no it did not contain any bad language.

  13. Dan White, Disgruntled Former ACLU Member Says:

    "Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
    The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
    - President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961

    "Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected,
    is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms ...
    The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard, against
    the tyranny which now appears remote in America but which historically has proven to be always possible."
    - Hubert H. Humphrey, Senator, Vice President, 22 October 1959

    "The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances
    where all other rights have failed -- where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the
    courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may
    seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once."
    - Justice Alex Kozinski, US 9th Circuit Court, 2003

    Shame on you ACLU for your hypocritical view on our right to bear arms!

  14. Rocky Says:

    Bush should be impeached for using wire taps, illegaly, and the phone companies involved should be forced to pay fines, or suffer jail time for their part in illegally breaking the law.

  15. rhutcheson Says:

    Contrary to my every expectation, it's now the courts, even after decades of right-wing control of nominations, rather than the political "opposition", which are acting to curb the worst excesses of the current administration.

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