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.
