Act NOW re Surveillance Legislation (EFF)

Electronic Frontier Foundation ACTION ALERT

ALERT: Surveillance Legislation Continues to Threaten Privacy

Act Today to Call for More Careful Consideration and Moderation
(Issued: Friday, September 21, 2001 / Deadline: September 30, 2001, unless extended)

Introduction:
San Francisco, California - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urges continued activism against the \"Anti-Terrorism Act\" (ATA) [a.k.a. \"Mobilization Against Terrorism Act\" (MATA)], proposed by the US Department of Justice, and related legislation (presently 3 bills), because many provisions of the bills would dramatically alter the civil liberties landscape through unnecessarily broad restrictions on free speech and privacy rights in the United States and abroad. Your urgent action is needed TODAY.

EFF again urges Congress to act with deliberation in approving only measures that are effective in preventing terrorism while protecting the freedoms of Americans.

EFF believes this broad legislation would radically tip the United States system of checks and balances, giving the government unprecedented authority to surveil American citizens with little judicial or other oversight.

Ashcroft\'s proposed legislation (distributed Sep. 19) comes in the wake of the Senate\'s hasty passage of the \"Combating Terrorism Act\" (CTA) on the evening of Sep. 13 with less than 30 minutes of consideration on the Senate floor. On Sep. 20, Rep. Lamar Smith circulated a draft bill very similar to CTA, called the Public Safety and Cyber Security Enhancement Act (PSCSEA)

The ATA/MATA is currently a draft bill, subject to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and briefing on Mon., Sep. 24. The CTA is presently a Senate-passed amendment to a House appropriations bill. It is expected to be voted on in joint conference committee early next week. The only real pressure point on the CTA is the conference committee; whatever emerges will almost certainly pass both houses near-unanimously. PSCSEA\'s future is uncertain at this point, as is that of Leahy\'s (presently unavailble) draft.

What YOU Can Do Now:
Contact your own legislators about the ATA/MATA, the CTA, and the PSCSEA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Call them, and fax and/or e-mail the EFF letter below today. For best effect, the messages you send should be sent the morning of Mon. Sep. 24 or this weekend if possible. Postal mail will be too slow on this issue. Feel free to use this letter verbatim, or modify it as you wish. Let them know that you do not believe liberty must be sacrified for security. Please be polite and concise, but firm. For information on how to contact your legislators and other government officials, see EFF\'s \"Contacting Congress and Other Policymakers\" guide at:
http://www.eff.org/congress.html
and see also the links below.
Contact the conference committee members about the CTA AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. A similar sample letter for this purpose, plus contact information, is provided below.
Join EFF! For membership information see:
http://www.eff.org/support/
Sample Letters:
To save space, since this issue has two alerts, please see the Web-posted version of this alert for the sample letters:
http://www.eff.org/alerts/20010921_eff_wiretap_alert.html

NEW: Easier committee contacts! All of the committee members\' e-mail addresses (other than Hollings who only provides a web form, and several Represenatives who can only be e-mailed through the WriteRep form) are available as a copy-pasteable block of addresses you can simply paste into the \"To:\" header in your e-mail program to mail them all at once. Acting on this alert should only take a few minutes. Aren\'t your civil liberties worth that much time?

There are two sample letters below, one to your own legislators, and one to the conference committee members.

Use this sample letter to YOUR legislators or modify it, and send to their Washington fax and e-mail, which you can get this from Project Vote Smart:
http://www.vote-smart.org/vote-smart/data.phtml?dtype=C&style=
or the House:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html
and Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm
websites. You can also look up your Representative with this form:

(see EFF website)

Dear Sen./Rep. [Surname]

I write as a constituent to express my gravest concern over aspects of the Congressional response to the tragedies of September 11. While I share your grief and anger in no uncertain terms, I do not believe that sacrificing essential liberties in a vain hope of improving security is good for America or the world. Security can be improved without privacy invasion, and we cannot win an attack on freedom by attacking that freedom ourselves.

I urge you to vote AGAINST H.R. 2500 should it emerge from conference committee with amendment S.A. 1562, the Combating Terrorism Act, attached, and to vote against the forthcoming Mobilization Against Terrorism Act a.k.a. Anti-Terrorism Act, the draft Public Safety and Cyber Security Enhancement Act (PSCSEA), and any similar legislation expanding wiretap powers, online monitoring, warrantless pen register or trap and trace authority, censorship, or restrictions on encryption.

The United States should not take steps toward becoming a police state, or otherwise undermine our own freedom in the name of defending that freedom from terrorist attack, or the terrorists have already won. This is a time for careful consideration, not for passing legislation without debate or careful consideration of the consequences.

I specifically object to S.A. 1562 sections 816, 832, 833, and 834, and any similar measures, such as those proposed by Attorney General Ashcroft and Rep. Lamar Smith, as well as recent calls for measures that would thwart Americans\' use of secure encryption. I also object to provisions being passed in response to terrorism but which have nothing to do with terrorism, such as \"emergency\" wiretaps against simple computer crime incidents and the abuse of grand juries as tools for intelligence agencies.

Sincerely,

[Your name & address]

(Be sure to correct the salutation - use EITHER Sen. or Rep., and use the correct name.)

Use this sample letter below to conference committee members or modify it, and send to all of the following:

Representatives:
Name (State), Phone (202-225-####), Fax (202-22#-####), E-mail
Frank Wolf (VA), 5136, 5-0437, none
Hal Rogers (KY), 4601, 5-0940, talk2hal [at] mail.house.gov
Jim Kolbe (AZ), 2542, 5-0378, none
Charles Taylor (NC), 6401, none, repcharles.taylor [at] mail.house.gov
Ralph Regula (OH), 3876, 5-3059, repregula [at] workinohio.org
Tom Latham (IA), 5476, 5-3301, latham.ia05 [at] mail.house.gov
Dan Miller (FL), 5015, 6-0828, none
David Vitter (LA), 3015, 5-0739, david.vitter [at] mail.house.gov
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