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ACLU Letter to Senate Members Urging Opposition to H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act
The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urges you to vote “NO” on H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendment Acts of 2008. This bill unconstitutionally and unnecessarily permits the government to vacuum up Americans’ international communications, without a connection to al Qaeda, terrorism, or even to national security. While there is limited prior review by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the protection afforded by that review is almost completely illusory. H.R. 6304 also grants retroactive immunity to companies that facilitated warrantless wiretapping over the last seven years. For these reasons, we ask you to stand with the Constitution and vote no on this overreaching legislation. Because this bill essentially eviscerates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and many of the Fourth Amendment protections it contained, we will be scoring this vote.

ACLU Letter to the House Of Representatives Strongly Urging Opposition to H.R. 6304 , The FISA Amendments Act of 2008

ACLU Analysis of Telecom Immunity Provision in Senator Bond's Proposal of May 21, 2008
Despite claims that Senator Bond’s proposal will allow court review of the pending lawsuits against telecoms that illegally released consumer communications and records, the draft very clearly prevents the courts from determining whether those activities actually complied with the law. Instead, it directs the secret FISA court to dismiss all cases on a showing merely that the telecoms received a piece of paper from the government – regardless of what it said. Here’s what the Bond proposal really does:

Testimony of Caroline Fredrickson on Overclassification Before the House Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment

Joint Letter from Members of Congress to Attorney General Mukasey Urging the Appointment of Special Counsel

Sign On Letter to House Homeland Security, Intelligence and Judiciary Committees Opposing Funding for Domestic Spy Satellites

ACLU One Pager on the State Secrets Protection Act of 2007, H.R. 5607

ACLU Letter to House Members Urging Support of the Video Recording of Interrogations Amendment
The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urges you to support the video recording amendment that Representatives Rush Holt, Ellen Tauscher, Raul Grijalva, and Janice Schakowsky will offer during consideration of the defense authorization bill this afternoon.1 The amendment would make an important--and extraordinarily practical--change to Defense Department interrogation practices by requiring the recording and retention of videos of strategic interrogations of persons under the custody or control of the Defense Department. The amendment would bring these interrogations into conformity with recommended best practices for military and law enforcement interrogations, and increase accountability for compliance with the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment and other anti-torture laws.

ACLU Letter to House Appropriations Committee, Intelligence Committee and Leadership Urging Against Funding for Spy Satellites

Testimony of Mike German, Policy Counsel with the ACLU, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Gohmert, members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to speak with you about the treatment of whistleblowers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I represent the American Civil Liberties Union, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending the Constitution and protecting civil liberties. The ACLU vigorously supports meaningful legal protections for all whistleblowers, but particularly for employees and contractors within the law enforcement and intelligence communities, where abuse and misconduct can have serious and direct effects on our rights and liberties, as well as our security.

FISA: Fear-mongering and What We've Learned Since January

Coalition Sign On Letter to House Leadership Urging Investigations into US Agencies' Role in Torture

Coalition Sign On Letter to Senate Leadership Urging Investigations into US Agencies' Role in Torture

Coalition Memo to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Regarding "Homegrown Terrorism"

Testimony of Caroline Fredrickson, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia

Joint letter to Department of Homeland Security on Inspector General report on the removal of Maher Arar to Syria
We write to urge you to release, immediately and in its entirety, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report OIG-08-18 entitled “The Removal of a Canadian Citizen to Syria.” The one page unclassified summary of the report released last month is uninformative and clearly an inadequate representation of the investigation results. Moreover, it fails to address any of the concerns we expressed previously to the Department regarding the legality of the procedures by which the U.S. government removed Maher Arar to Syria and general U.S. government practices for handling similar cases.

Statement of Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, Submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a Hearing Entitled, “National Security Letters: The Need for Greater Accountability and Oversight”

ACLU Section by Section of S. 2088, The National Security Letter Reform Act of 2007

ACLU Section by Section of H.R. 3189, The National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007

Coalition Letter to Congress Urging Opposition to Real ID Implementation