FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON – Following President Bush’s call today for passage of legislation
that would reauthorize the Patriot Act without correcting the most
egregious
parts of that law, the American Civil Liberties Union faulted
the White House
for failing to address the serious privacy issues that
remain unfixed and urged
lawmakers to resist White House pressure and
reject the flawed reauthorization
bill.
The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU
Washington Legislative Office:
“The current bill pending before Congress isn’t a compromise; it’s a
concession to White House pressure and a curtailment of the Constitution.
The president omitted two key points in his radio address. First, the conference
report was agreed to on a completely party line basis, not by all of the
conferees as the president implied. Second, the conference report
squanders precious resources by leaving the law open to abuse and fishing
expeditions into the private records of innocent Americans instead of focusing
on suspected terrorists. Modest, common sense reforms share strong
bipartisan support and could easily be added to the secret record search powers,
as called for by conscientious Americans across the political spectrum, from the
middle to both the right and left.
“Let's also be clear on one point that the president and others continue to
make: the Patriot Act and its new powers did not ‘tear down the wall’ that
separated law enforcement and intelligence authorities. The bipartisan
9/11 Commission found that internal bureaucratic practices, and not the law,
stopped that cooperation. Like so much of the cheerleading about the
Patriot Act, it’s misleading and insincere. The administration has failed
to answer basic questions for the American people about how the secret record
search powers that were dramatically expanded by the Patriot Act are being
used--ignoring these controversial issues while touting parts of the Patriot Act
that aren't even in dispute. It's classic sleight of hand.
“We applaud reasonable lawmakers – like Senators Feingold, Durbin, Salazar,
Craig, Sununu and Murkowski – that have stood firm in their convictions to
protect Americans’ freedoms and privacy. They recognize that the
Constitution and its protections must remain strong, regardless of which party
controls Congress or the White House. We hope that other lawmakers will
join them in that fight to keep America both safe and free.”
To read the ACLU’s letter to Congress on the conference report, go to:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/22394leg20051207.html
To see the ACLU’s chart on the conference report, go to:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/22429leg20051207.html
To read the ACLU’s Interested Person’s Memo on the conference report, go
to:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/22384leg20051207.html
To read the ACLU’s summary of the Patriot Act conference report, go to:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/22436leg20051207.html
For more on the ACLU’s concerns with the Patriot Act, go to:
http://www.reformthepatriotact.org
