Warrantless Wiretapping

“If you like the Patriot Act, you’ll love the Specter bill,” says Joe Onek, Senior Policy Analyst at the Open Society Institute and Open Society Policy Center. “The USA PATRIOT Act amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to make it easy for the government to get a court order to read your library and medical records. The Specter bill amends FISA to permit the government to listen to your phone calls and read your e-mail without any court order.”

The parallels between the Specter bill (S. 2453) and the PATRIOT Act grew stronger last week, as news of an alleged plot to place bombs on airplanes in London rekindled fears of terrorist attacks in the U.S. Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff lost no time in suggesting that the U.S. might benefit from the British authorities’ apparently lower standards for surveillance and for holding suspects without charges. Be prepared for the Bush Administration to exploit the alleged plot, and any other plots or arrests between now and election day, to expand its power and influence. The Specter bill, which would solve President Bush’s warrantless surveillance problem by making the prevailing law (FISA)
optional, is only one example. Senator Specter says he has enough votes on the Senate
Judiciary Committee to pass the bill there, opening the door to a full Senate vote in September, unless enough people say No.

Fear has been used to justify many changes that have diminished civil liberties and to prevent meaningful changes to restore them.

For example, in October 2001, the Bush Administration used post-9/11 fear of further attacks to rush the PATRIOT Act through Congress, largely unread. In July 2005, House Republican leadership used the London subway bombings to push through the House version of the PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill (HR 3199) and to reject several amendments that would have strengthened civil liberties protections.

But fear is not an effective strategy against an informed public that holds its elected representatives accountable. Readers of our action alerts have already sent nearly 3,000 faxes to their Senators about Senator Specter’s bill. And the passage of 400 local resolutions and eight state resolutions upholding the Constitution and Bill of Rights resonates in the halls of Congress.

This election year offers fresh opportunities for us to demonstrate to candidates for office, including incumbents, that we are serious about protecting our civil liberties from attempts such as the Specter bill to take them away. We are equally committed to restoring the Bill of Rights to full power. It is also a critical time for us to educate our neighbors and to bring the debate over civil liberties to new communities.