ACLU ONLINE

An historic, pivotal battle over the Patriot Act is now underway. This summer, America will need your help as never before, as we work to restore liberties lost to the Patriot Act, and to stem the tide of further expansions.

Take Action!Act now and urge your members of Congress to oppose expansion of the Patriot Act. We have already begun to fight. With your help, the ACLU won a small victory this week when the Senate Intelligence Committee reversed its decision to vote on legislation to expand the Patriot Act in secret session without any public hearing. And while they did hold a public hearing on Tuesday, the Committee will still be voting on the legislation in a closed door session today. If we are going to beat back this climate of secrecy and slow the rush to eliminate checks and balances, we will need to work tirelessly and together as Patriot Act legislation makes its way through Congress this summer. Proposed expansions to the Patriot Act include new FBI powers to order disclosure of a broad array of personal records without judicial approval in advance. Another provision would broaden the government’s ability to monitor your mail. Not surprisingly, the sponsors of these attacks on liberty are deploying the same tactics used in the 45 days after September 11, 2001, when the Patriot Act was rushed through Congress with little to no debate. You have helped the ACLU educate and rally millions of Americans who now realize that the Patriot Act went too far, too fast. We’ve been successful in generating a growing clamor of bipartisan concern over the Patriot Act. The time to make our voices heard is now.In the coming weeks, we will keep you informed of developments in Congress and our essential efforts to make sure the Patriot Act receives real reform, not a rubber stamp. There will be much work for us all. You can begin to get involved today.Take action now and urge your members of Congress to oppose expansion of the Patriot Act. Learn more about the Patriot Act.

Documents released last week by the Department of Defense reveal more cases of abuse of detainees, including mock executions and use of a religious symbol to taunt detainees. "While the White House blames Newsweek magazine for damaging America's reputation in the Muslim world, the Army's own investigations show systemic abuse and humiliation of Muslim men by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "If we are to truly repair America's standing, the Bush Administration must first hold accountable high-ranking officials who allow the continuing abuse and torture of detainees." One investigation into abuses at Rifles Base in Ramadi, Iraq details an incident in July 2003 in which an Army captain took an Iraqi welder into the desert, told him to dig his own grave, verbally threatened to kill him and had other soldiers stage a shooting of the man. Another document dated July 15, 2004 related an incident involving two Iraqi men detained in Samarra. The men were driven to a bridge, where a platoon leader instructed three soldiers to push the detainees into the river. One of the Iraqi men could not swim and drowned. The body was recovered by the family 12 days later and buried. One soldier indicated to investigators that the chain of command had instructed the soldiers not to cooperate with the investigation and to deny that they pushed the men into the river. To date, more than 35,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at www.aclu.org/torturefoia.

The FBI and local police are engaging in intimidation based on political association and are improperly investigating law-abiding human rights and advocacy groups, according to documents obtained by the ACLU through a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed last week. The ACLU charged that the FBI is wrongfully withholding thousands of pages of documents, and filed a lawsuit on May 18 in federal court to compel the FBI to comply with the FOIA requests. The few documents received to date through the December FOIA requests shed light on the FBI’s misuse of Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) to engage in political surveillance. The FOIAs seek two kinds of information: the actual FBI files of groups and individuals targeted for speaking out; and information about how the practices and funding structure of the JTTFs may be encouraging rampant and unwarranted spying. "The FBI is taking tax dollars and resources established to fight terrorism and instead spying on innocent Americans who have done nothing more than speak out or practice their faith," Beeson said. "By recruiting the local police into these activities, they are also sowing dissent and suspicion in communities around the country." The JTTF partnerships between the FBI and local police, in which local officers are "deputized" as federal agents, are intended to identify and monitor individuals and groups implicated in terrorism. But the ACLU charges that these task forces are allowing local police officers to target peaceful political and religious groups with no connection to terrorism. Learn more and take action. Quiz: Could they have a file on you?

Over the past three years, the federal government has awarded more than one million dollars to the "Silver Ring Thing," an abstinence-only organization that describes its mission as "offering a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as the best way to live a sexually pure life." Last week, in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Jenner & Block LLP against the federal government for funding religious activities in an abstinence-only program, the Silver Ring Thing substantially altered and removed religious content from its website. During the "Silver Ring Thing's" flagship three-hour program members testify about how accepting Jesus Christ improved their lives, quote Bible passages, and urge audience members to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to come into their lives. In addition, the official silver ring of the program is inscribed with a reference to the biblical verse "1 Thess. 4:3-4," which reads "God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. Then each of you will control your body and live in holiness and honor." The "Silver Ring Thing" is an extensive, nationwide effort that uses government funds for aggressive religious recruitment. Since April 2003, it has held three events in the Boston area and is scheduled to hold a fourth in October of this year. But, it has also held events in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin and is scheduled to visit Georgia, Ohio, and North Carolina, among other states, in the coming year. "A sanitized version of the website does not change the fact that the "Silver Ring Thing" in its core programming is nothing more than a vehicle for converting young people to Christianity," said Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts. "Taxpayer dollars should play no part in such a program." Get more information on the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom program.