The Council on American-Islamic Relations (<a href="CAIR) — concerned about “how Islamophobia and anti-American sentiment has affected civil rights and policy making” — urges “the American Muslim community and other people of conscience [that’s you and me] to contact their elected representatives and ask that they co-sponsor the recently introduced ‘Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act’, designed to repeal unconstitutional sections of the original USA PATRIOT Act.”
- Scale back the government’s authority to seize personal
information — credit reports, communications records and financial
information — through National Security Letters without judicial
review. - Narrow the “sneak and peek” provision in the PATRIOT Act, which
allows federal agents to get court authorization to search
Americans’ homes without notifying them for weeks or even months. - Refine section 215, which allows the FBI to obtain a rubberstamp
court order giving it access to Americans’ medical, business,
library and even genetic records without probable cause.
See the ACLU’s “Bipartisan Legislation Would Fix Worst Parts of Patriot Act”
“The PATRIOT Act was passed in haste during a time of national
crisis and now needs to be revised to bring it into conformity with
the Constitution and with American traditions of personal privacy,”
said CAIR Governmental Affairs Director Corey Saylor. “The
protection of civil liberties and national security are not mutually
exclusive goals.”
ACTION REQUESTED:
CONTACT your elected representatives to ask that they support
the “Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act.” GO TO:
http://capwiz.com/cair/ (Enter your ZIP code.) Ask that they defend
the Constitution and American traditions of personal privacy by
making changes to the PATRIOT Act. Tell them we can protect both
national security and civil liberties.
I hope we can push this.
Btw, CAIR recently “took Fox to task about the “24” episode in the publication Broadcasting and Cable.”
CAIR’s site is nice. And they’ve got a big program going to support Earth Day on April 22. I’d like to hear some of their stories about what they’ve gone through, especially since 9/11.
You know, Susan, you guys over there are so much more aware of these issues than we are here. Other than Parliamentarians, I don’t think the average bloke in the street even thinks about these here.
Thank heavens we have had the European Convention on Human Rights foisted on us by Brussels, otherwise Tony Blair would have had a field day removing our civil liberties.
Only because our lunatics are worse than your lunatics. (At least yours has a brain.)
are reduced to pleading for a bill that asks that people only be beaten three times a week instead of seven, that should be a wake up call to every American no matter what their political affiliation.
This has got to be the single most profoundly sad piece of legislation seen in modern times.
Though I cannot claim to be optimistic that it will, I hope that the effort is successful.
Who wouldn’t rather be beaten only three times a week?
It’s better than nothing, I guess. I just pray it has a chance.