poetrychic

Dear ():

Thank you for contacting me concerning the President's domestic surveillance program. I appreciate hearing from you.

Providing any President with the flexibility necessary to fight terrorism without compromising our constitutional rights can be a delicate balance. I agree that technological advances and changes in the nature of the threat our nation faces may require that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted in 1978, be updated to reflect the reality of the post 9/11 world. But that does not absolve the President of the responsibility to fully brief Congress on the new security challenge and to work cooperatively with Congress to address it.

As you know, Congress has been considering the issue of domestic surveillance since last year. The debate continues, but the shift in party control on Capitol Hill has clearly had an impact on this critical discussion over the balance of power in our system of government. On January 17, 2007, after conducting its wiretapping program without court approval for over 5 years, the Justice Department announced that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court had approved its program to listen to communications between people in the U.S. and other countries if there is probable cause to believe one or the other is involved in terrorism. Then, in early February, the Justice Department announced that it would give the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees of both chambers of Congress access to previously withheld documents on the NSA program. The congressional committees with jurisdiction over this issue hailed the agreement as a step in the right direction.

However, there is still significant work to be done. Just before the August recess in 2007, Congress passed hastily crafted legislation to expand the authority of the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to conduct surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists without a warrant or real oversight, even if the targets are communicating with someone in the United States. This legislation was signed into law by the President on August 5, 2007, and expires after six months.

As you are aware, Congress is working on reforms to the FISA bill to be enacted before the expiration of the current legislation. On November 15, 2007, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3773, the Responsible Electronic Surveillance That is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007� (RESTORE Act) by a vote of 227-189. The House bill does not provide retroactive immunity for private companies that may have participated in the illegal collection of personal information, nor does it provide immunity for Administration officials who may have acted illegally.

On February 12, 2008, the Senate passed S. 2248, making its own reforms to FISA. I am disappointed that S. 2248, if signed into law, will grant an unprecedented level of immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the President's warrantless wiretapping program. I was proud to cosponsor several amendments, including the Dodd-Feingold amendment to strike the immunity provision, that would have enhanced privacy protections while maintaining the tools to fight terrorism. However, with the defeat of this amendment, telecom companies will not be held accountable even if it could be proven that they clearly and knowingly broke the law and nullified the privacy rights of Americans. I am frustrated by the President's decision to play politics by threatening to veto any legislation not containing immunity. Why the President continues to try to hold this important legislation captive to that special interest provision defies explanation. The House and Senate must reconcile differences between the two versions of the bill before being signed into law.

The American people understand that new threats require flexible responses to keep them safe, and that our intelligence gathering capability needs to be improved. What they do not want is for the President or the Congress to use these imperatives as a pretext for promoting policies that not only go further than necessary to meet a real threat, but also violate some of the most basic tenets of our democracy. Like most members of Congress, I continue to believe that the essential objective of conducting effective domestic surveillance in the War on Terror can be achieved without discarding our constitutionally protected civil liberties.

Thank you again for writing. Please stay in touch as this debate continues.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator

i'd almost forgotten that i'd written him, it's been so long...just wanted to share

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"it was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, yes we can!"

Ptech

I want so badly to trust Obama....but I'm just not sure.

cheapseats

Why Congress is too CHICKENSHIT to send a bill containing NO IMMUNITY FOR PREVIOUS CRIMES to Law & Order Bush...put the ball in his court, with fanfare...and make him fly his colors before the American people, this also defies explanation.

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poetrychic

agreed...i was happy to see he had tried to get an amendment passed that would get rid of immunity, and it's unfortunate the house version passed that way with but the senators' failed

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"it was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, yes we can!"

neptune

I'm curious about this...what components of trustworthiness do you feel are missing?

Do you feel he's been dishonest in the past, or do you just not know enough about his record and history to be able to say for sure?

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Holy Mudhead, mackerel! Morse Science High!
It's....disappeared!
-- Firesign Theatre

neptune

Yep...so now it goes to Conference Committee to be haggled out. Anyone know who is on this particular conference?

__________________

Holy Mudhead, mackerel! Morse Science High!
It's....disappeared!
-- Firesign Theatre

Alwayzpeaceful

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SMILE

poetrychic

in the house, it's the judiciary committee with john conyers as chair...while i was looking for this information, i came across the following press release from the 14th:

(Washington, DC)- House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. released the following statement to President Bush's commitment to work on foreign surveillance legislation through the recess:

"The president’s efforts to cast blame on FISA, echoed by his allies in Congress, show an appalling disregard for the facts. He threatened to veto any extension of the Protect America Act and, following his lead, every single Republican in the House voted against the 21 day extension I sponsored in the House. The president and House Republicans cannot have it both ways, simultaneously arguing that the PAA is essential to national security and also engineering the defeat of an extension of it. The consequences for inaction are their responsibility.

“Unfortunately, it is the same old tired rhetoric of fear that the country overwhelmingly rejected in the 2006 elections.

"From what I have seen from the Justice Department documents so far, there is no need to provide amnesty to telecommunication companies who are protected under current law, as long as they and the government are acting accordingly. I have not seen anything that leads me to believe, as the president seems to believe, that providing amnesty to these companies is a more compelling public interest than our constitutionally protected right to privacy. We must maintain our civil liberties and give the government the tools it needs to collect intelligence information, but I do not believe telecom amnesty is necessary in order to accomplish that goal.

"I have told my colleagues in the House that I am committed to working through this recess and will be discussing this legislation with Chairman Reyes and Senators Leahy and Rockefeller. I appreciate the president's dedication to seeing this through and hope that he will join me in putting Americans before corporate interests."

please pay particular attention to the red..i am curious how the right can reconcile this fact with their opinions regarding warrentless wiretapping...also makes me wonder what intentions are floating around, and who is going to get a sizeable payoff from whatever happens?

i really admire conyers, he is certainly a man of principle and i respect him immensely for working through the recess to get this hammered out...

here is the house committee

__________________
"it was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, yes we can!"

Sean

Funny, all my emails have been "from" his wife.

HarperLee

Funny, I have not received one email from his wife.

This is how well-organized his campaign is: last night I finally
sent some money. I guess I didn't read everything, but I had no
idea that there are "matching funds". I have been emailing a cool
lady in L.A. who matched my funds.

Do you think Barack will call me today and thank me?