IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM TEXAS THAT EFFECTS ALL OF US:

OFF THE WIRE
NATIONAL CALL TO ACTION FOR ALL US


DEFENDERS PATRIOT ACT

It was brought to our attention this week by Jerry Rose, TMRA2 Legislative

Task Force member and State Vice Chairman, that certain sections of the

Patriot Act

provisions of the Patriot Act give the government sweeping authority to spy

on individuals inside the United States, and in some cases, without any

suspicion of wrongdoing.

All three should be allowed to expire with no sunset review at all because the

provisions don’t require individual or fact-based suspicion as required by the

Constitution and they don’t impose checks and balances. In addition we want

to ask Congress to consider reforming the Patriot Act all together.

are due to expire February 28th, 2011. The three expiring

https://www.eff.org/
The Provisions that are set to expire are:

. Section 215 of the Patriot Act authorizes the government to obtain "any

tangible thing" relevant to a terrorism investigation, even if there is no

showing that the "thing" pertains to suspected terrorists or terrorist

activities. This provision is contrary to traditional notions of search and

seizure, which require the government to show reasonable suspicion or

probable cause before undertaking an investigation that infringes upon a

person's privacy. Congress must ensure that things collected with this power

have a meaningful nexus to suspected terrorist activity or it should be

allowed to expire.

. Section 206 of the Patriot Act, also known as "roving John Doe wiretap"

provision, permits the government to obtain intelligence surveillance orders

that identify neither the person nor the facility to be tapped. This provision is

contrary to traditional notions of search and seizure, which require

government to state with particularity what it seeks to search or seize.

Section 206 should be amended to mirror similar and longstanding criminal

laws that permit roving wiretaps, but require the naming of a specific target.

Otherwise, it should expire.

. Section 6001 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of

2004, or the so-called "Lone Wolf" provision, permits secret intelligence

surveillance of non-US persons who are not affiliated with a foreign

organization. Such an authorization, granted only in secret courts is subject

to abuse and threatens our longtime understandings of the limits of the

government's investigatory powers within the borders of the United States.

This provision has never been used and should be allowed to expire outright

Last year, Congress passed a one-year extension of the three provisions

without making much-needed changes to the overly broad surveillance law.

The Patriot Act has been used improperly again and again by law

enforcement to invade Americans’ privacy and violate their constitutional

rights. Rather than allow these provisions to be rubberstamped in February,

Congress should seize this opportunity to make reforming the Patriot Act a

priority.” Write your officials in Congress and tell them we are against HR 67

which allows the Sunset review to be extended until 2012 and to let the

provisions of the Patriot Act fade into the sunset and expire forever!

Start at the top, work your way down in contacting your Representatives!

http://www.congress.org/
Example Letter

The Honorable John Cornyn

United States Senate

517 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510-4304

In Re: Reauthorization of the Patriot Act- It's Time to Fix the Patriot Act!

Dear Honorable John Cornyn,

There's more evidence than ever that the rampant Patriot Act abuse is a real

and present danger. Although the original intent was to assist in fighting

terrorism, the documentation confirms that this abuse has been used over

and over again in Texas, trampling on our fourth amendment written for

United States citizens on our Sovereign soil! In Texas there have been

numerous reports of Law Enforcement stopping bikers, photographing their

tattoos and patches and putting the information in the Fusion Center data

base even if they are not suspected of a crime. What has happened to our

Fourth Amendment?

The three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act give the government

sweeping authority to spy on individuals inside the United States, and in

some cases, without any suspicion of wrongdoing. Section 215 . Section

206 . Section 6001 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act

of 2004 are due to expire Feb. 28th, 2011. I feel all three should be allowed

to expire if they are not amended to include privacy protections to protect

personal information from government overreach. I am against HR67 which

allows another extension on the provisions until 2012, this matter needs to

be dealt with now.

I also respectfully request that you promote Patriot Act reform. It is past

time for our government to stop violating the rights of non criminal, law

abiding everyday people who have nothing to do with terrorism. Please tell

congressional leaders to include substantive National Security Letter reforms

in any bill extending Patriot Act powers.

I look forward to your response on this important matter.

Sincerely,

Paul Landers

Republic of Texas