We need you to call Renny Fagan at Senator Salazar's Denver office as follow-up to our meeting to discuss FISA!
We talked about
Unjustified Grant of Retroactive Immunity
Lengthy Sunset
Little Protection Against Reverse Targeting
No Prohibition on Bulk Collection
Loophole for Advance Judicial Approval of Court Orders
No Limits on Use of Illegally Obtained Information
Few Protections for People in the United States
We argued
* The granting of retroactive immunity to companies that allegedly participated in the President’s illegal wiretapping program
* The fact that the legislation does not provide adequate protections for innocent Americans.
* Title I of the new bill, which includes expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, does not include the most tremendously important safeguards previously approved by the Judiciary Committee.
* It does not include any of the amendments that Senator Feingold offered on the Senate floor earlier this year, each of which received 35 or more Democratic votes. These safeguards would have permitted the government to obtain the intelligence information it needs while also protecting the privacy of law-abiding Americans.
His argument, which we found to be puzzling, follows. Although I'm paraphrasing, the logic doesn't seem to be quite right. If I were a former AG, I think I'd be concerned about immunity for the corporatists and their power to influence what goes on in Washington!
(1) It's very similar to how a law enforcement official relates to a citizen;
(2) The POTUS took the action to engage the telecommunications companies right after the attack of 911 when we were faced with the potential for further attack;
(3) Senator Salazar considers this legislation as critical to our national security. He has been briefed by the Senate Intelligence Committee and he believes that the Intelligence Committee is the best source of information about this legislation and House and Senate oversight.
I wanted to scream at him that Jay Rockefeller can't be trusted, but I bit my tongue and calmed my mind!
We left Mr. Fagan with a copy of the bill and we asked him to read it and to please ask Senator Salazar to read it. We encouraged him to ask Senator Salazar to consider the impact of allowing corporate America to commit illegal acts even though they were asked to do it by the President of the United States while knowing full well that it was illegal. Afterall, Salazar is a former Attorney General!
When you call or e-mail please indicate that you're sorry that you couldn't be there to meet him with Annette and Vicki.
Here is his number: 303-455-7600 E-mail: Renny_Fagan@salazar.senate.gov