National Security Agency (NSA) Director Keith Alexander will testify Tuesday in an open hearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).  The hearing is part of the continuing oversight the HPSCI conducts of the NSA, and an opportunity to discuss how the disclosed NSA programs protect Americans from terror attacks on US soil, and why the disclosure of that classified information aids our adversaries.

Date:               June 18, 2013  (Tuesday)
Topic:              How Disclosed NSA Programs Protect Americans, and Why Disclosure Aids Our Adversaries
Time:               10:00am – 12:00pm ET

•   Merkley/Lee transparency bill http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/06/11/senators-proposal-would-force-secret-surveillance-into-open/
•   Udall/Wyden data limitation http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/14/mark-udall-ron-wyden-nsa_n_3442054.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
•   Rand Paul’s Fourth Amendment Restoration Act http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=838
•   Leahy Restore Our Privacy Act http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Restore%20Our%20Privacy%20Act.pdf
•  Conyers and Amash House Bill: http://images.politico.com/global/2013/06/13/061313nsafinal.html

• http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/bills-would-clip-nsas-wings-on-phone-data-92809.html (Friday June 14) and
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/06/17/how-far-is-too-far-for-nsa-and-what-is-congress-doing-this-week/

• Last meeting’s notes (summary, detail)
• DC protest: http://dcdirectactionnews.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/capitol-police-harass-protest-against-nsa-prism-spying/
• GFR Facebook groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/17961184023/
• GFR Google+ community: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/105143096977144180596
• News roundup post from today: http://getfisaright.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/detailed-discussions-of-nsas-phone-and-internet-surveillance-a-roundup/
• Restore the 4th’s IRC channel: http://webchat.snoonet.org/restorethefourth

Overview
After we’d caught up a bit with each other, Jon summed up the new surveillance-related news: (1) the Verizon court order revealing Section 215 (PATRIOT Act) phone metadata trawls, (2) PRISM possibly a data mining or at least organizing system, (3) evidence of perjury to Congress via the “Boundless Informant” revelation showing US data collection (contradicting testimony by DNI James Clapper).

There’ve been a variety of reactions and repercussions. The story is followed closely overseas. Tech businesses are concerned this will damage US “cloud computing” companies because of NSA’s apparent ease of access. Closer to home, a demonstration is planned in Washington DC on Friday, in front of one of the Senate office buildings. Legal responses include a lawsuit by the ACLU and bills by Senators Merkley, Lee, and Paul, who also is discussing somehow bringing a case to the Supreme Court. A grassroots umbrella group called “Restore the 4th” is using Reddit to organize local demonstrations about the issue on Independence Day.

What does Get FISA Right bring to the table?
The discussion then turned to how Get FISA Right (GFR) could best contribute to the uprising around surveillance issues.

Politisal’s response: “history.”  John noted that GFR grew out of what was the biggest Obama group by far – a group that was coming to terms with the fact that he is not on our side on this.  (Some of this history, including a famous open letter to Obama, was detailed in an October 2010 retrospective by Harry.)  Obama’s response to the open letter was to say “judge me by my actions.”  Thomas noted, “we will” — but that while we need to acknowledge a reckoning with Obama, his observation is that people can turn off quickly if it becomes about Obama. “Moderates are giving me the time of day on this issue who usually don’t, but if it’s about Obama, then it becomes about sides and deteriorates.”  Jon acknowledged that was a tightrope, but said we have a history and a brand, and were among the pioneers of activism in a social network setting.  Harry considered it a case study in effective targeting of a political organization; he noted that 350.org is currently doing something similar: targeting OFA volunteers to inquire up the OFA chain about Keystone XL pipeline.  (This is apparently resulting in many of those volunteers quitting.)

So that’s what we’ve done and perhaps inspired — but what unique traits do we bring to the table now?  Some possible answers:

• loose organization: we could do things 501c3s couldn’t do, though organizations like EFF are more aggressive now.(Jon)
• good at getting press:, and anything that brings more press and reinvigorates the story when needed is useful.(Thomas)
• email lists: from the Obama campaign days and the next few years(Jon) narrow,
• focus: on telecom immunity or (Thomas) wider issue of warrantless surveillance; i.e., a little bit wonky

Some ideas:

• let the GFR blog become a forum for activists to tell what they’re doing — radically open up the blog to encourage posts, discussion, learning
• encourage 99% “Occupy” wearethe99percent.tumblr.com-style photo and/or video responses to stock questions: what have you got to hide? what my privacy means to me, etc.  Harry is currently doing something like this with his “supervoters.org” organization: http://supervoters.org/campaigns/i-stand-with-edward-snowden/
• set up online teach-ins, e.g., Google hangouts, on topics of NSA, surveillance, PATRIOT and FISA Amendment Acts, etc; here’s an Occupy example.
• collaborate with “Restore the Fourth” reddit.com organizing around this issue
• …and more.

For the complete notes for this meeting, go to this “PiratePad” note link.  Here are some organizational and informational links to have a look at:

• http://stopspying.us
• http://www.emptywheel.net/category/fisa/ (added here, TN)
• http://www.emptywheel.net/category/patriot/ (added here, TN)
• http://www.peerflow.net/2013/06/nsa-domestic-spying-we-stopped-it-in-1977-and-we-can-stop-it-again.html
• http://www.peerflow.net/2013/06/senators-feinstein-and-chambliss-shuffle-their-feet-about-fisa.html
• http://www.peerflow.net/2013/06/nsa-prism-writs-of-assistance-rattlesnakes-and-the-fourth-amendment.html

A followup phone call was set for Sunday, and a few assignments like posting this account of the meeting were passed around.  Sorry to have taken too long with this one.

Post your question at the Guardian. As he makes his way through the thread, they’ll embed his replies as posts in the live blog. You can also follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #AskSnowden.

Reblogged from Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition:

• Recap of action items from last meeting
• Should we endorse legislation?  Should we do votes on the blog?
• Updates on Restore the 4th and DC protest
• Where we can add value
• Preparing for NRN
• Working groups
• Tech platform (if time permits)
• Next steps

Diagram by Marcy Wheeler, originally from “The CNET ‘Bombshell’ and the Four Surveillance Programs”

Several well-researched articles go into detail about the NSA’s phone and internet surveillance.   Marcy Wheeler’s diagram summarizes how the different programs fit together.  Bulk data collection from telcos captures metadata (the phone number or internet address being contacted, how long the call or email was, location, email subject header).  The content goes into different databases and has separate procedures to access it.   Julian Sanchez has a great analysis, starting with an exchange between from Rep. Jerry Nadler and FBI Director Robert Mueller, and relates to back to the FISA battle where we started:

What seems more likely is that Nadler is saying analysts sifting through metadata have the discretion to determine (on the basis of what they’re seeing in the metadata) that a particular phone number or e-mail account satisfies the conditions of one of the broad authorizations for electronic surveillance under §702 of the FISA Amendments Act. Those authorizations allow the targeting of whole groups or “categories of intelligence targets,” as the administration puts it. Once the FISA Court approves targeting procedures, they have no further role in deciding which specific accounts can be spied on. This is, as those of us who wrote about the FAA during its recent reauthorization observed, kind of a problem.

In Minimize This!, Marc Ambinder has a lot of details on how the authorization works, starting with a phone call captured at “a cell phone tower near the home of a known trafficker in nuclear components”.

1. If the number called is a number for which the NSA has already gotten a court order to intercept, then the analyst can listen in on the call.

2. If the number is unknown to the analyst, he or she will use a variety of tools and databases to try and identify it. If the name (if there IS a name) that comes up at the end of THIS search is the target of an ongoing FISA order, then the analyst can continue to listen.

3. If the number is identified as belonging to a U.S. person who has heretofore never been identified with nuclear proliferation or anything else [emphasis mine], then the analyst must electronically minimize the U.S. portion of the call. Sometimes, depending on who is doing the analysis, a computer will do this before the analyst has any say in the matter.

In the third instance, the U.S. person can become a target. Here’s what happens: Generally, the NSA analyst will contact a superior, who will write a report attesting to the fact that a known nuclear proliferator called a telephone number inside the U.S. This report, called an IIR, will be forwarded to the FBI’s electronic communication liaison unit with NSA, and will be flagged by both the FBI and the CIA. At this point, depending upon the situation, the FBI will run with the tip, or will coordinate with the CIA, or the NSA and FBI will use the IIR to seek a FISA order to monitor the person’s communications.

But the standard the court looks for is higher: Probable cause must exist to show that the U.S. person belongs to a network of proliferation.

Barton Gellman’s U.S. surveillance architecture includes collection of revealing Internet and, phone metadata in the Washington Post and Stephen Braun et. al’s AP story on Secret to Prism program: Even bigger data seizure have a wealth of detail. Marcy Wheeler’s posts on Emptywheel have a lot of the best analysis of the situation; as well as The CNET “Bombshell” and the Four Surveillance Programs, check out Shell Games: How to Keep Doing Internet Data Mining and Avoid the Courts, PRISM: The Difference between Orders and Directives, Russ Feingold: Yahoo Didn’t Get the Info Needed to Challenge the Constitutionality of PRISM, and What Does NCTC Do with NSA and FBI’s Newly Disclosed Databases?

Katitza Rodriguez et. al from the EFF looks at it from the perspective of the vast majority of the world who are not “U. S. persons” in An International Perspective on FISA: No Protections, Little Oversight.   And Speaking of the international perspective, Philip Dorling’s Australia gets ‘deluge’ of US secret data, prompting a new data facility in The Age reports that “Australian intelligence agencies receive what Defence intelligence officials describe as ”huge volumes” of ”immensely valuable” information derived from PRISM and other US signals intelligence collection programs” and has a gem likely to reinforce the rest of the world’s fear that maybe, just maybe, the information is being used for things other than fighting terror:

US signals intelligence is also described as ”absolutely critical” to Australia’s diplomatic campaign to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

”Without intelligence support, overwhelmingly provided by US capabilities, we would not have won the seat,” one Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officer recently said.

Via EFF.

Contact:
Martine Zundmanis – 202-531-0748
Shahid Buttar – media@bordc.org / 202-316-9229
What: Civil liberties coalition challenges secret dragnet spying
Where: the corner of Delaware and Constitution Avenues near Upper Senate Park
When: June 14, 2013 at 12:00 pm

let the NSA know you’re coming at the Facebook event page!

“Boundless Informant” screen shot; click for larger image. Via The Guardian.

A press conference and rally protesting the National Security Agency’s abuses of law-abiding Americans will be held on Friday, June 14, 2013 at 12 noon on Capitol Hill, at the corner of Delaware and Constitution Avenues near Upper Senate Park.

The action has been called by a coalition of local and national organizations in the Washington, DC, metro area, including the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition, Defending Dissent Foundation, CODEPINK, the Washington Peace Center, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Council on American–Islamic Relations-Maryland, Demand Progress, Institute for Policy Studies, Bradley Manning Support Network and others.

“We are outraged that our government has given itself the power to conduct intrusive spying on us through our phone records, emails and other digital media,” said Thomas Nephew of the Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition. “It’s no accident that these powers of surveillance were barely explained to Congressmembers, let alone to the general public for an open debate. The only way this extensive intrusion of privacy could occur was behind an undemocratic cloak of secrecy.”

Speakers at the event will include:

• Sue Udry, Defending Dissent Foundation
• Thomas Nephew, Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition
• Seema Sadanandan, ACLU-National Capital Region
• Zainab Chaudry, CAIR-MD
• Shahid Buttar and George Friday, Bill of Rights Defense Committee
• Sanho Tree, Institute for Policy Studies
• Naji Mujahid, NAACP
• David Moon, Demand Progress
• Dany Sigwalt, Washington Peace Center

The rally will emphasize that although the President and Congress point to legal authorities enabling secret dragnet NSA surveillance, the 2008 FISA Amendments Act authorized programs that are blatantly unconstitutional, and were illegal when they were first launched in secret. We the People did not resign our rights under the Fourth Amendment, even if Congress and the courts have grown complicit in the national security state’s systematic violations.

The rally is the first of several events planned in response to revelations of secret NSA spying. Coalition members will be meeting with Senators and Representatives to express their deep concerns about the NSA and inviting both long overdue oversight, as well as affirmative legislation to rein in domestic surveillance. Additional demonstrations will also be occurring, both in the nation’s capital, as well as around the country in local towns and cities.

In each of these actions, we demand:

• that the NSA immediately cease its collection of electronic intelligence on U.S. citizens and persons in the United States unless it can demonstrate probable cause to suspect an individual of committing a criminal offense
• that Congress repeal the 2008 FISA Amendments Act and the PATRIOT Act
• that the Senate and House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees each launch an investigation into the extent of the NSA’s and FBI’s spying networks, reveal their costs to the public and explore whether their results justify that cost
• that government officials, including the senior ranks of the NSA and FBI, be held accountable for deceiving Congress and citizens about the scope of their constitutionally offensive domestic surveillance activities

Sponsors include: Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition • Defending Dissent Foundation • CODEPINK • Washington Peace Center • Bill of Rights Defense Committee • Demand Progress • Institute for Policy Studies • Council on American–Islamic Relations-Maryland • Bradley Manning Support Network • ACLU of the Nation’s Capital

In an open letter to lawmakers sent today, the groups call for a congressional investigatory committee, similar to the Church Committee of the 1970s. The letter also demands

• reforming the controversial Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the “business records” section which, through secret court orders, was misused to force Verizon to provide the NSA with detailed phone records of millions of customers.
• reforming the FISA Amendment Act, the unconstitutional law that allows, nearly without restriction, the government to conduct mass surveillance on American and international communications.
• amending the state secrets privilege, the legal tool that has expanded over the last 10 years to prevent the government from being held accountable for domestic surveillance.
• holding public officials responsible for this illegal surveillance accountable for their actions.

The letter denounces the NSA’s spying program as illegal, noting:

This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that protect their right to privacy.

The full text of the letter is below.  Stay tuned for more!

Full text of the open letter:

Dear Members of Congress,

We write to express our concern about recent reports published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, and acknowledged by the Obama Administration, which reveal secret spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on phone records and Internet activity of people in the United States.

The Washington Post and the Guardian recently published reports based on information provided by a career intelligence officer showing how the NSA and the FBI are gaining broad access to data collected by nine of the leading U.S. Internet companies and sharing this information with foreign governments. As reported, the U.S. government is extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time. As a result, the contents of communications of people both abroad and in the U.S. can be swept in without any suspicion of crime or association with a terrorist organization.

Leaked reports also published by the Guardian and confirmed by the Administration reveal that the NSA is also abusing a controversial section of the PATRIOT Act to collect the call records of millions of Verizon customers. The data collected by the NSA includes every call made, the time of the call, the duration of the call, and other “identifying information” for millions of Verizon customers, including entirely domestic calls, regardless of whether those customers have ever been suspected of a crime. The Wall Street Journal has reported that other major carriers, including AT&T and Sprint, are subject to similar secret orders.

This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that protect their right to privacy.

We are calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt this surveillance and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s and the FBI’s data collection programs. We call on Congress to immediately and publicly:

1. Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;

2. Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance;

3. Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Access

Advocacy for Principled Action in Government

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression

American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union of California

American Library Association

Amicus

Association of Research Libraries

Bill of Rights Defense Committee

BoingBoing

Breadpig

Calyx Institute

Canvas

Center for Democracy and Technology

Center for Digital Democracy

Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights

Center for Media and Democracy

Center for Media Justice

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Consumer Action

Consumer Watchdog

CorpWatch

CREDO Mobile

Cyber Privacy Project

Daily Kos

Defending Dissent Foundation

Demand Progress

Detroit Digital Justice Coalition

Digital Fourth

Downsize DC

DuckDuckGo

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Entertainment Consumers Association

Fight for the Future

Floor64

Foundation for Innovation and Internet Freedom

4Chan

Free Press

Free Software Foundation

Freedom of the Press Foundation

FreedomWorks

Friends of Privacy USA

Get FISA Right

Government Accountability Project

Greenpeace USA

Institute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA)

Internet Archive

isen.com, LLC

Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)

Law Life Culture

Liberty Coalition

May First/People Link

Media Alliance

Media Mobilizing Project, Philadelphia

Mozilla

Namecheap

National Coalition Against Censorship

New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC

Open Technology Institute

OpenMedia.org

Participatory Politics Foundation

Patient Privacy Rights

People for the American Way

Personal Democracy Media

PolitiHacks

Privacy and Access Council of Canada

Public Interest Advocacy Centre (Ottawa, Canada)

Public Knowledge

Privacy Activism

Privacy Camp

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Privacy Times

reddit

Represent.us

Rights Working Group

Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association

RootsAction.org

Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic

Sunlight Foundation

Taxpayers Protection Alliance

TechFreedom

The AIDS Policy Project, Philadelphia

TURN-The Utility Reform Network

Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center

William C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI)

World Wide Web Foundation

Kevin Drum, observing the sad Senate vote to reauthorize the FISA Amendment Act:

The worst part of all this is that nobody cares. None of our three major daily newspapers made this front-page news. Virtually none of the blogs I read highlighted it. Even my Twitter feed only mentioned it sporadically.

And of course, that includes me. I didn’t write about it either. Glenn thinks that liberals have largely given up criticizing this stuff because we now have a Democratic president in the White House rather than George W. Bush, and I suppose that’s part of it. But a bigger part, I think, is simply that it’s all become so institutionalized. Back in 2004 and 2006, we were outraged because this was all so new. Today, after fighting and losing, it’s just part of our brave new world, along with 3-ounce bottles on airplanes, unreviewable no-fly lists, and cops who demand to know what you’re up to if you start taking pictures in public places.

As a country, we’re now divided into two parts: those who aggressively support things like warrantless wiretapping because they’re consumed with fear, and those who don’t but have given up trying to fight about it. There’s hardly anyone left still willing to tilt at this particular windmill. It’s sad as hell.

The complete silence here bears Drum out in much of what he writes.  That silence included me, it included Jon Pincus, Harry Waisbren, and the many others who were once consumed with the effort to make opposition to Bush-era surveillance state carry over to the Obama administration.  Last week, Marcy Wheeler reminded readers that Obama said this, once upon a time:

Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I’ve chosen to support the current compromise. I do so with the firm intention — once I’m sworn in as President — to have my Attorney General conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future. [snip]

I do promise to listen to your concerns, take them seriously, and seek to earn your ongoing support to change the country. That is why we have built the largest grassroots campaign in the history of presidential politics, and that is the kind of White House that I intend to run as President of the United States — a White House that takes the Constitution seriously,conducts the peoples’ business out in the open, welcomes and listens to dissenting views, and asks you to play your part in shaping our country’s destiny.

Glenn Greenwald, referencing Wheeler’s post, adds, “Needless to say, none of that ever happened. Now, the warrantless eavesdropping bill that Obama insisted was plagued by numerous imperfections is one that he is demanding be renewed without a single change.

We need to face it: Obama was full of shit then, he’s full of shit now, and he’s been full of shit all along.

But additionally mortifying, for us, is that this site and its advocates have played a role in letting him get away with that.  How?  By functioning as an ineffective diversion — a playground where the misguided could pretend we were effective opponents of the FISA Amendment Act and Patriot Act when we weren’t.   The approach taken — an allegedly “proud group of Obama supporters” asking him “to get FISA right” — has been conclusively shown to be without merit.  It made a little sense in 2008; it makes no sense whatsoever now: we can’t possibly be a proud group after letting this debate go unremarked and unopposed; many of us are no longer Obama supporters; and there is no chance that Obama will get FISA right.  Our current charade must end, one way or the other.

Accordingly, I’m unilaterally pulling down the Get FISA Right logo and replacing it with “What’s Wrong Baby” for the time being.  (The logo and slogan are a reference to the John Carpenter movie “They Live”; yes, it’s over the top, but at least it recognizes who our political foes include.  Think of it as a declaration of independence.)

It might well be a better, simpler alternative to delete this site altogether — “Strike another match, go start anew.” That won’t bother me too much, but we did some worthwhile things along the line here that maybe deserve to be preserved — fundraising for Feingold, the ads at the 2008 conventions and later, attempts to inform ourselves and others about the politics and policy of surveillance and civil liberties.

One way or another, we have to step back and realize that to “Get FISA Right,” we will first need to get “Get FISA Right” right. That starts with ditching a painfully embarrassing logo,  revising our “About” statement, consigning the old one to the archives,  and going from there.

The floor is yours.

=====
(Originally posted as “This site sucks; that’s over, one way or the other”)
Old “blavatar”:

Old header:

http://www.salon.com/2012/05/24/warrantless_spying_fight/singleton/

Here is a petition to sign and forward (Thanks, ACLU!)

https://www.aclu.org/secure/sem-tell-congress-fix-fisa-and-stop-warrantless-wiretapping?ms=gad_SEM_Google_Search-FISA_FISA-Name_fisa_p_14325892582

Time to get active again!

Reblogged from Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition:

Reblogged from Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition:

Reblogged from Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition:

Starting this week, Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition is pleased to host a series of posts on protecting your online privacy, written by Bill Day.  Bill is an employment lawyer by day and a digital privacy and Internet use activist by night.  He'll be suggesting ways you can enhance your online privacy with email encryption, anonymizing your Internet surfing, best practices, and more. 

Read more… 281 more words

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President Obama announced last week that he was not planning to veto the National Defense Authorization Act — a bill with provisions upending the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and arguably common law dating back to the Magna Carta: the right to a trial and to not be imprisoned without review.

MCCRC activists were determined to weigh in on a decision that will have terrible consequences for the rule of law in this country. We decided to select Obama’s Montgomery County, Maryland “Organizing for America” headquarters in Kensington, on Wednesday during evening phonebanking hours. Our goals: (1) to serve notice that we’re willing to protest President Obama’s plans or decisions when necessary, “even” in an election season, (2) to engage Obama volunteers about the NDAA bill, (3) to persuade some of them to call the White House — (202) 456-1414 — and urge Obama to veto the bill, and (4) to discuss with them the general “security at the price of liberty” policies that have accelerated since 9/11 — and that have been continued or even expanded under the Obama administration.

We talk with the campaign's evening office manager. Click the image for a slideshow of the protest.

Obama volunteers — whether inside the office or at the building entrance — were surprised to see us, and many told us they hadn’t heard about the NDAA bill before we had spoken with them.

For his part, the evening office volunteer manager was willing to hear from us, and listened with interest as we explained our problems with the NDAA. He said he would share the news and reasons of our visit with higher-ups in the Obama campaign organization.

He also agreed to distribute about a dozen copies of our one page, two-sided informational flyer to the evening’s volunteers. The flyer featured the New York Times editorial “Politics over Principle” on one side and excerpts from Glenn Greenwald’s “Three myths about the detention bill” on the other. As these articles explain, the bill…

• strips civilian law enforcement and courts of the power to prosecute terrorists, giving that to the military
• codifies indefinite detention of those charged, without trial
• does not preclude that American citizens might suffer the same fate, despite the Bill of Rights
• expands the scope of the “war on terror” beyond those responsible for 9/11 or harboring them, to anyone who “substantially supports” such groups and/or “associated forces”

While too much of the above has already been occurring, it’s a legally meaningful and bad thing for such practices to be expressly codified by Congress and signed by the President. It’s additionally disappointing — and ominous for democracy — that a president who campaigned on the “Hope” for “Change” so many of us shared, and who specifically opposed many of these measures on the campaign trail, might now choose to make them the law of the land.

Many of us believe it’s important to take a stand against these encroachments of our rights and liberties — wherever we are, and no matter who is responsible. By next Wednesday, we sadly anticipate that President Obama will have signed the NDAA into law.

So we’re asking everyone in our area to join us that next Wednesday, December 28, at 4:30pm at 3750 University Blvd. West, Kensington MD (map)* to protest the NDAA’s passage at Obama for Maryland headquarters. And we hope Americans elsewhere will do the same at the Obama campaign headquarters nearest to them.

UPDATE: video

- – -

Further reading on the NDAA:

• BORDC NDAA page, Bill of Rights Defense Committee
• President Obama: Veto Indefinite Detention, ACLU “Blog of Rights”; all NDAA posts
• @BarackObama: Protect #US National Security and #VetoNDAA! (Wala, Human Rights First)
• So you think you’ve arrested a terrorist (Reilly, Talking Points Memo)
• A Bill of Rights for Some (Cole, New York Review of Books)
• New Military Detention Powers Threaten Basic Rights (RealNewsNetwork video series)

=====
* Public Transportation: From the Bethesda Metro Station, take Ride-On Bus #33 towards Glenmont (30 min.) or #34 towards Wheaton (37 min.). From the Wheaton Metro Station, take Ride-On Bus #34 towards Friendship Heights (7 min.)

We had three months.  It is virtually gone.  Support Russ FEiongold for senator or governor, should there be a recall election, support Al Franken on virtually everything he does, and even thank Rand Paul for being a holdout on this.  There are some things that Libertarians have absolutely right.

“All day long, we received reports of phone lines being flooded with calls, so that people couldn’t even get through,” says EFF’s activism director Rainey Reitman, “In the coming weeks, we’ll look to harness this energy into future actions in the fight against overbroad government surveillance.”

The two-week Congressional recess from April 18-May 1 is a great opportunity for “in-district” meetings with Representatives. Several clauses of the PATRIOT Act will sunset unless Congress extends them by May 27.  Most Democrats support reform, and more and more Republicans are coming out against overbroad legislation, so it’s a great opportunity — but on the other hand, there’s also the risk of a permanent extension. So now’s the time for action.

Executive Director Shahid Buttar of Bill of Rights Defense Committee explains, “With the Obama White House pushing a Bush administration policy, the next step is for Congress to check & balance documented executive abuses under the PATRIOT Act — and for We the People to press our congressional representatives to do their jobs.”

BORDC has some great suggestions about how to set up and prepare for a meeting — including “you don’t have to go it alone”, “outline your interests”, and “follow up”. They’ve also got a couple of optional preparation phone calls scheduled for next week. sign up on their web site if you’d like to be notified. ACLU’s Congressional testimony hearing has some great talking points, and so do Downsize DC, EFF, and BORDC.

Once Congress gets back, things are likely to move very quickly. But as Pew Research reported in February, the PATRIOT Act galvanizes bloggers and people on social networks across the political spectrum.   Combining that with the in-person meetings over the recess, and there’s a great chance to build on the multipartisan campaign’s successes so far.  As Sue Udry of Defending Dissent points out, “”Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle understand the country won’t stand for another rubber stamp extension of PATRIOT.  Our job is to be clear that minor reforms won’t cut it. We demand JUSTICE, not the PATRIOT Act.”

Here’s how you can help:

• Start planning now to meet with your legislators when they’re back in your districts between April 18th and May 1. BORDC has some great suggestions.
• Help get the word out! Share links and forward email action alerts. Write a letter to the editor. Talk about the PATRIOT Act with friends and family and your colleagues at work — ask what they think, tell them about your concerns, and tell them how they can get involved.
• Check back for updates — for me, Twitter is the easiest way to stay informed; or sign up with any of the organizations involved to be on their mailing lists.  Speaking of Twitter, we had a great discussion of this at #privchat on April 5, and will probably cover it again later this month. If you’re not on Twitter, here’s how you can get started.

The next six weeks are a crucial time for civil liberties in the US. So please, get involved!

jon

On April 5, 1792, President George Washington vetoed a bill — the first time in U.S. history that the presidential veto was exercised. On the anniversary of this day, we’re calling on Barack Obama to exercise his presidential powers to veto any PATRIOT Act renewal bill that does not include powerful reforms to safeguard civil liberties.

– EFF’s action alert

As a candidate, Obama repeatedly promised to reform the PATRIOT Act.  He also promised Get FISA Right, in his response to our open letter, that he’d ask for “recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future.”  With the battle in Congress over key clauses of the PATRIOT Act heating up again, now’s a great time to ask him to live up to his campaign promises.

The legislative situation is very fluid.  Legislation in the House is likely to drop soon.  In the Senate, Leahy’s S. 193 will be the basis for a floor debate, with amendments likely to be proposed by both sides.  The Obama Administration supports S.193, but many privacy and civil liberties organizations support the JUSTICE Act’s much stronger protections, including better oversight of the use of national security letters (NSLs) as repeatedly recommended by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General, more effective checks on “sneak and peek” searches , and roving wiretaps, and revising the “material support” standard to require that prosecutors prove that defendants knowingly intended their support to further violent extremism.

By taking a strong stand for civil liberties, Obama could help shape the upcoming Congressional debate.

It’s easy to be skeptical …

Will Obama listen?  Thus far, his administration seems to have largely followed the Cheney/Bush path on civil liberties.  With so many other contentious issues in the pipe, it’s easy to be skeptical whether he’ll make a stand on this one.

That said, Obama’s not the only one we’re trying to send a message to with this call-in day.  Making a lot of noise will also catch Congress’ attention and hopefully remind the media that the multi-partisan opposition to the PATRIOT Act is continuing to organize.   So please don’t let your skepticism become an excuse for inaction.   If you’re sick of the PATRIOT Act, this is a chance to actually do something about it.  So please get involved even if you’re not sure it’ll matter.

We’ll follow up on the call-in day later in April, during the two-week recess, it’ll be a great time to meet key members of Congress in the House and Senate.   Right now, though, it’s Obama’s turn.

How you can help

Most importantly, call the White House at 202-456-1111 on April 5, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time.  Tell President Obama to keep his campaign promises by vetoing any PATRIOT Act renewal bill that lacks substantial new checks and balances to protect the privacy of innocent Americans.  EFF has some more detailed talking points.  You can RSVP on Facebook, via EFF or Demand Progress.

Between now and then …

• help get the word out!  Share links and forward on email action alerts.  Sign up on the Facebook event and invite your friends.  Talk about the PATRIOT Act with friends and family and your colleagues at work — ask what they think, tell them about your concerns, and tell them how they can get involved.
• And start planning now to meet with your legislators when they’re back in your districts between April 18th and May 1.  BORDC has some great suggestions.
• Check back for updates — At least for me, Twitter is the easiest way to stay informed; or sign up with any of the organizations involved to be on their mailing lists.  Speaking of Twitter, we will also be discussing this at #privchat on April 5.     If you’re not on Twitter, here’s how you can get started.

After February’s unexpected victory in February, now’s a key time to build on the momentum.   So please — get involved!

Julian Sanchez’ post from yesterday discusses why this is (relatively) good news . And as EFF tweeted, we have three months to organize.

Here’s a Doodle poll for our next organizing call. Please let us know when you can make it!

The grassroots anger against the PATRIOT Act is real across the political spectrum. So is the fear. And I agree with the politicians on both sides who said there’s a lot of misinformation out there. So over the next three months we need to do a lot of education, and get our message out in a way that’ll be heard.

And we need to make sure politicians get an earful from their constituents over next three months. The PATRIOT Act is an emblem of the kind of government intrusion the Tea Party and Libertarians loathes. So the Tea Party caucus — and every politician facing a likely Tea Party or Libertarian challenger in the 2012 primaries or general election — will be thinking very carefully about their votes. And ditto for progressives (and politicians facing progressive challengers).

There are a range of options and amendements on the table: permanent extension, a multi-year extension as requested by the Obama Administration, new safeguards, a reintroduced JUSTICE Act. And a lot of the people I heard calling in on CSPAN supported an outright repeal.*

For almost ten years, the PATRIOT Act has been an embarrassment to our country and even most of the politicians who have voted for it. One way or another, it’s time to do something about it.

Stay tuned for more.

jon

* speaking of which, for those of you on Facebook, here’s info about a March 12 protest in DC to repeal the PATRIOT Act.

We’re hanging out in the chat room at on http://bit.ly/feb17chat … please join us!

jon

Today’s House Floor Schedule includes possible consideration of the Senate’s amended version of H.R. 514 .  The Hill reports that the rule for considering the Senate bill is likely to be passed today, with the vote either today or tomorrow.

The Senate Judiciary will consider Sen. Leahy’s S. 193 (The USA Patriot Act Sunset Extension Act of 2011) on Thursday  (Feb. 17th) at 10:00am.   Watch for details on our blog, our Facebook group, and Twitter!  Here’s Senator Leahy’s statement on the 3-month extension that passed the Senate:

The bill I introduced on January 26, and that the Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider this week, is based on the bill the Judiciary Committee considered and passed with a bipartisan majority last Congress.  It includes additional adjustments made at Senator Kyl’s suggestion after the Committee reported the bill in 2009.  I will urge the Judiciary Committee to report that legislation again, and I will urge the Senate to consider and pass the improvements to the USA PATRIOT Act that we have proposed, during this short, additional three-month extension.

The ACLU’s reaction to yesterday’s Senate vote:

Every day that Congress continues to push back the February expiration deadline, the Patriot Act continues to erode one of Americans’ most basic rights – the freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into their privacy. If there has to be an extension of this law, we urge Congress to use the time well to finally rein in the pernicious impact of the intrusive provisions at stake.

In the LA Times, Lisa Mascero gives the political context

Senate Democrats are hoping to avoid interjecting the national security issue into the 2012 presidential campaign by sending their bill to the Republican-led House, which earlier this week overcame opposition from conservative lawmakers to pass an extension through Dec. 8.”

CBS news quotes Dianne Feinstein (whose S.289 is one of the bills the Senate is considering)

“It’s very important that it not expire.  It gives us more time because there are three different bills and a lot of stuff going on and you can’t sort it out. So this will give some time.”

Saxby Chambliss, top ranking Repbublican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, adds

“We’re talking about a ninety day extension to give us time to bring it up for full debate on the floor. Obviously we don’t have time to do that before the end of the week.  As of right now I have no qualms with doing that.”

AP gives some historical context:

But from the inception of the Patriot Act in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the increased surveillance powers have been subject to scrutiny and criticism from both conservatives and liberals who say they violate free speech rights and rights against unwarranted searches and seizures….

’We knew we were in a very emotional state’ after the attacks, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. He said the provisions give the government access to sensitive personal records such as medical, library and gun records, and ‘can lead to government fishing expeditions that target,
unfortunately, innocent Americans.’

And in Rand Paul vs. the PATRIOT Act, in The Atlantic, Chris Good quotes Sen. Paul’s letter to his colleagues:

I object to these warrantless searches being performed on United States citizens.  I object to the 200,000 NSL searches that have been performed without a judge’s warrant.

I object to over 2 million searches of bank records, called Suspicious Activity Reports, performed on U.S. citizens without a judge’s warrant.

Yeah really.

jon

PS: thanks to Patrick for the links and summaries, and @threeifbybike for the tweetable list of Senate nays.  To stay in touch with the latest news, check out our blog, our Facebook group, and the #patriotact hashtag on twitter!