ACLU, Center for Constitutional Rights challenge Bush's spy program
A bit of good news from yesterday: the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights are challenging the Bush administration's illegal domestic spying program and calling for its immediate end:
The Bush administration is using the tragedy of September 11th, 2001, as an excuse to strip away our most precious civil liberties. It's completely unnecessary and it's entirely unacceptable. It has to end - immediately.
McClellan's pathetic sideshow isn't the least bit funny.
This administration is defying United States law, ignoring our sacred Constitution, and attacking anyone who dares to disagree or challenge this betrayal of the American people. We need to stand up and defend our freedoms.
We cannot allow our democracy to be undermined, weakened, and subsequently destroyed by Republican tyrants in their lust for power, all in the name of safety and security.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is suing Bush, the head of the National Security Agency and the heads of the other major security agencies.Of course, Bush shill Scott McClellan, when given an opportunity to respond, declared the lawsuits were "frivolous". (We certainly know what to expect if the administration loses the lawsuits: it'll be the fault of those "liberal activist judges" who need to be tossed off the bench.)
The organization, which represents hundreds of men held as enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, must now audit old communications to determine whether "anything was disclosed that might undermine our representation of our clients," said Bill Goodman, the center's director.
The Detroit lawsuit, which names the National Security Agency and its director, said the program has impaired plaintiffs' ability to gather information from sources abroad as they try to locate witnesses, represent clients, do research or engage in advocacy.
It was filed by the ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Greenpeace and individuals on behalf of journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations that communicate with people in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere.
[...]
"One reason why the United States is held in such low esteem ... today is because we are seen as hypocritical," he said. "We vow to promote individual freedom as the central purpose of foreign policy, and then we violate individual freedom with this secret warrantless surveillance."
The Bush administration is using the tragedy of September 11th, 2001, as an excuse to strip away our most precious civil liberties. It's completely unnecessary and it's entirely unacceptable. It has to end - immediately.
McClellan's pathetic sideshow isn't the least bit funny.
This administration is defying United States law, ignoring our sacred Constitution, and attacking anyone who dares to disagree or challenge this betrayal of the American people. We need to stand up and defend our freedoms.
We cannot allow our democracy to be undermined, weakened, and subsequently destroyed by Republican tyrants in their lust for power, all in the name of safety and security.
