EFFector Vol. 14, No. 25 Sep. 19-20, 2001 editors@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
EFFector Vol. 14, No. 25 Sep. 19-20, 2001 editors@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
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(Updated to reflect name change of draft bill.)
San Francisco, California - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today criticized the "Mobilization Against Terrorism Act" (MATA), renamed later the same day to "Anti-Terrorism Act" (ATA), proposed by the US Department of Justice because many provisions of the law 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 urged Congress to act with deliberation in approving only measures that are effective in preventing terrorism while protecting the freedoms of Americans.
Attorney General John Ashcroft distributed the proposed Mobilization Against Terrorism Act/Anti-Terrorism Act to members of Congress after Monday's press conference at which he indicated that, among other measures, he would ask Congress to expand the ability of law enforcement officers to perform wiretaps in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Ashcroft asked Congress to pass anti-terrorism legislation including "expanded electronic surveillance" by the end of this week.
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 comes in the wake of the Senate's hasty passage of the "Combating Terrorism Act" (CTA) on the evening of September 13 with less than 30 minutes of consideration on the Senate floor.
The ATA/MATA is currently a draft bill, expected to be introduced and rammed through Congress within the next two days. The CTA is presently a Senate-passed amendment to a House appropriations bill. It is expected to be voted on in joint conference committee this week, or early next week at the latest. The House has already passed the "base" bill, while the Senate has passed it plus the wiretapping amendment. The House delegates several Representatives to meet with several Senators in conference committee, who will collectively decide what amendments the final, joint version will include. This final version is then voted on by the full House and Senate. This only real pressure point on the CTA is the conference committee; whatever emerges will almost certainly pass both houses near-unanimously.
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:
or the House:
and Senate:
websites. You can also look up your Representative with this form:
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, 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, 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@mail.house.gov
Jim Kolbe (AZ), 2542, 5-0378, none
Charles Taylor (NC), 6401, none, repcharles.taylor@mail.house.gov
Ralph Regula (OH), 3876, 5-3059, repregula@workinohio.org
Tom Latham (IA), 5476, 5-3301, latham.ia05@mail.house.gov
Dan Miller (FL), 5015, 6-0828, none
David Vitter (LA), 3015, 5-0739, david.vitter@mail.house.gov
Josˇ Serrano (NY), 4361, 5-6001, jserrano@mail.house.gov
Alan Mollohan (WV), 4172, 5-7564, none
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), 1766, 6-0350, none
Robert Cramer (AL), 4801, 5-4392, budmail@mail.house.gov
Patrick Kennedy (RI), 4911, 5-3290, patrick.kennedy@mail.house.gov
For Representatives that don't provide a direct e-mail address, use this form:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Senators:
Name (State), Phone (202-224-####), Fax (202-224-####), E-mail
Robert Byrd (WV), 3954, 228-0002, senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov
Patrick Leahy (VT), 4242, 3479, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Ted Stevens (AK), 3004, 2354, senator_stevens@stevens.senate.gov
Mitch McConnell (KY), 2541, 2499, senator@mcconnell.senate.gov
Ernest Hollings (SC), 6121, 4293, none
Daniel Inouye (HI), 3934, 6747, senator@inouye.senate.gov
Barbara Mikulski (MD), 4654, 8858, senator@mikulski.senate.gov
Herb Kohl (WI), 5653, 9787, senator_kohl@kohl.senate.gov
Patty Murray (WA), 2621, 0238, senator_murray@murray.senate.gov
Jack Reed (RI), 4642, 4680, jack@reed.senate.gov
Judd Gregg (NH), 3324, 4952, mailbox@gregg.senate.gov
Pete Domenici (NM), 6621, none, senator_domenici@domenici.senate.gov
Kay Hutchison (TX), 5922, 0776, senator@hutchison.senate.gov
Ben Campbell (CO), 5852, 1933, none
Thad Cochran (MS), 5054, 9450, senator@cochran.senate.gov
Sen. Hollings can be e-mailed via the Web at:
Sen. Campbell provides no public e-mail mechanism of any kind.
HTML version with clickable e-mail address hotlinks:
Dear Sen./Rep. [Surname] and Other H.R. 2500 Conference Committee Members:
I write 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 specifically object to H.R. 2500 amendment S.A. 1562, the Combating Terrorism Act, sections 816, 832, 833, and 834, and any similar measures, such as the Mobilization Against Terrorism Act a.k.a. Anti-Terrorism Act proposed by Attorney General Ashcroft, 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.
I urge you to vote AGAINST incorporating the above-mentioned sections of S.A. 1562 into the final version of H.R. 2500, and to vote against any similar amendments 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.
Sincerely,
[Your name & address]
(Be sure to correct the salutation - use EITHER Sen. or Rep., and use the correct name.) If one of the conference committee members if your Rep. or Sen., mention that you are a constituent, as in the first letter.)
Non-US readers can probably have little impact on the US Congress's votes on these matters, and could even affect them negatively. Your best course of action is to contact your own legislators/parliamentarians and urge them to avoid similar policies in your own country.
This drive to contact your legislators about unprecedented wiretap power expansion is part of a larger campaign to highlight how extensively companies and governmental agencies subject us to surveillance and share and use personal information online & offline, and what you can do about it.
Check the EFF Privacy Now! Campaign website regularly for additional
alerts and news:
One particularly egregious section of the DOJ's analysis of its proposed legislation says that "United States prosecutors may use against American citizens information collected by a foreign government even if the collection would have violated the Fourth Amendment."
"Operating from abroad, foreign governments will do the dirty work of spying on the communications of Americans worldwide. US protections against unreasonable search and seizure won't matter," commented EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien.
Additional provisions of the proposed Mobilization Against Terrorism Act (MATA)/Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) include measures which:
EFF Executive Director Shari Steele emphasized, "While it is obviously of vital national importance to respond effectively to terrorism, this bill recalls the McCarthy era in the power it would give the government to scrutinize the private lives of American citizens."
During the Congressional session considering the Combating Terrorism Act, which was introduced as amendment S.A. 1562 to an omnibus appropriations bill, H.R. 2500, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) expressed concern that he was asked to vote so rapidly on such important legislation within minutes of receiving it and without conducting hearings in the Intelligence, Armed Services and Judiciary committees:
Maybe the Senate wants to just go ahead and adopt new abilities to wiretap our citizens. Maybe they want to adopt new abilities to go into people's computers. Maybe that will make us feel safer. Maybe. And maybe what the terrorists have done made us a little bit less safe. Maybe they have increased Big Brother in this country.
If that is what the Senate wants, we can vote for it. But do we really show respect to the American people by slapping something together, something that nobody on the floor can explain, and say we are changing the duties of the Attorney General, the Director of the CIA, the U.S. attorneys, we are going to change your rights as Americans, your rights to privacy? We are going to do it with no hearings, no debate. We are going to do it with numbers on a page that nobody can understand.
EFF shares Senator Leahy's concerns in this time of national crisis. EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn commented, "These proposals significantly impact the civil liberties of Americans. We urge legislators to please slow down and consider the long-term consequences of your votes."
"I believe that deep in their souls, Americans understand that the reason this country is so great--is so worth defending--is because it is free," explained EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. "We should be very careful to make sure that any legislation that passes is truly needed to address national security concerns."
During World War I, the US Congress hastily passed the Espionage Act which was notorious for decreasing freedoms without improving the security of the American public, under which Congress granted the Postmaster General (who delegated it to 55,000 local postmasters) the authority to read any mail and remove any material that might "embarrass" the government in conducting the war effort.
The proposed Anti-Terrorism Act a.k.a. Mobilization Against Terrorism Act:
EFF analysis of the ATA/MATA bill
[coming soon]:
Attorney General John Ashcroft's remarks on response to
terrorism from FBI headquarters on September 17, 2001:
The relevant portions of the Combating Terrorism Act (CTA), amendment S.A. 1562 of bill H.R. 2500, passed by the Senate:
To read the entire provisions from Congress's legislation server, go to:
They are the very last three sections on the page.
Senator Leahy's testimony on the Combating Terrorism Act:
EFF analysis of the Combating Terrorism Act:
Why "backdoor" encryption requirements reduce security:
EFF Surveillance Archive:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties
organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in
1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to
support free expression, privacy, and openness in the information
society. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the
most linked-to Web sites in the world:
http://www.eff.org
Shari Steele, EFF Executive Director
ssteele@eff.org
+1 415-436-9333 x103
Lee Tien, EFF Senior First Amendment Attorney
tien@eff.org
+1 415-436-9333 x102
- end -
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Editors:
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Stanton McCandlish, EFF Technical Director/Webmaster
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