[Vision2020] NSL Gags, Digital Privacy, Etc
Art Deco
deco at moscow.com
Fri Aug 20 14:13:43 PDT 2010
Very important issues of privacy and freedom of expression!!!!:
----- Original Message -----
From: ACLU Online
To: waf at moscow.com
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 1:43 PM
Subject: Your Digital Privacy, John Doe Revealed, a Very Different Internet, and More
FBI Partially Lifts Gag Order on NSL Recipient
Is Your Digital Privacy at Risk?
ACLU Sues Mississippi School for Excluding Teenager Wearing Tuxedo from Yearbook
A Disturbing Vision for the Future
Kevin Keith Clemency Request Rejected by Ohio Parole Board
Bienvenue, Guantánamo! A "Civil Liberties Minute" Podcast
New Reports on 9/11 Interrogation Tapes Underscore Need For Full Accountability and Transparency
A Vote for Women, A Vote for CEDAW
Bienvenue, Guantánamo! A "Civil Liberties Minute" Podcast
Want to get a closer look at Guantánamo Bay? Take a virtual press tour in this Civil Liberties Minute.
>> Listen to the podcast.
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New Reports on 9/11 Interrogation Tapes Underscore Need For Full Accountability and Transparency
This week, an Associated Press report provided the first public details about CIA tapes of interrogations of accused 9/11 conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh. The ACLU requested information from the government about these tapes last week, specifically asking why the CIA appears never to have noted the tapes' existence in the ACLU's long-running litigation over records relating to the treatment of detainees. The government has not yet responded.
According to the AP report, the tapes were discovered in 2007 under a desk in the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, and their existence was first revealed by the government in a letter sent that year to two federal judges. Prior to that letter, the government had denied the tapes' existence.
Many critical records were destroyed by the CIA, including at least 92 other interrogation videotapes depicting waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques." The ACLU continues to believe that the CIA's destruction of those videotapes was in violation of court orders and the Freedom of Information Act.
Accountability for torture is a legal, political, and moral imperative.
>> Take action: Ask Attorney General Holder to hold responsible those involved in the Bush torture program.
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A Vote for Women, A Vote for CEDAW
August 26 marks the 90th anniversary of Women's Equality Day, when women in the U.S. finally won the right to vote. To mark this special occasion, let's pressure members of Congress to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) so we can continue to make more progress in the ongoing fight for women's rights.
CEDAW is a landmark international treaty that affirms principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world and provides a practical blueprint for translating those principles into reality. Nearly every country in the world has ratified CEDAW; the United States is one of only seven that have not-together with Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Nauru, Palau, and Tonga.
That could change this year. It takes the votes of 67 senators to ratify a treaty, and President Obama, key Senators, and more than 140 organizations nationwide have expressed their support for the treaty's ratification.
U.S. ratification of CEDAW would lead to greater opportunity and access for women and girls in the United States and around the world, and would send a strong signal to other governments that protecting women's human rights is a global priority.
So as we celebrate the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage, we call on all women and men to exercise the power of your votes in this election year to tell your Senators that they must demonstrate their commitment to women's rights and ratify CEDAW.
>> Read more about CEDAW.
>> Take action: Tell your members of Congress to ratify CEDAW.
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August 20, 2010
FBI Partially Lifts Gag Order on NSL Recipient
Tell Congress to reject any expansion of the use of NSLs.
We can finally say it: John Doe is Nicholas Merrill. For the first time since the FBI served him with a national security letter (NSL) and placed him under gag more than six years ago, Nick can finally speak out about his experiences as the first person to ever bring a challenge against NSLs.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the NSL statute and the gag order on behalf of Nick in April 2004, which resulted in numerous court rulings finding the NSL statute unconstitutional.
NSLs are secret record demands the FBI issues to obtain access to personal customer records from internet service providers, libraries, financial institutions and credit reporting agencies without court approval or even suspicion of wrongdoing. Because the FBI can gag NSL recipients to prohibit them from disclosing anything about the record demands they receive, the FBI's use and potential abuse of the NSL power has been shrouded in excessive secrecy. While the NSL served on Merrill stated that he was prohibited from telling anyone about it, he decided to challenge the demand in court because he believed that the FBI was ordering him to turn over constitutionally protected information about one of his clients.
Thanks to Nick's actions, courts have now recognized the need for judicial oversight of the government's dangerous NSL gag power. But while misuse and abuse of the NSL power has been widely documented, Congress has neglected to reform the NSL statute to rein in those abuses and bring it in line with the court rulings in our case. And now, the Obama administration is seeking to expand the statute to allow the FBI to demand even more records without court approval.
>> Take action: Tell Congress to reject any expansion of the use of NSLs.
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Is Your Digital Privacy at Risk?
With each passing day, we're leaving a trail of more and more personal data. Take cell phones, for example-90% of Americans carry one, each of which can be used as a tracking device. At the same time, the government's appetite for our electronic information is out-of-control. The National Security Agency is intercepting 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other communications per day.
The combination of rapidly-advancing technology and ever-expanding government surveillance could be putting your private information at risk.
>> Find out how exposed you are-and what you can do about it. Take the quiz now.
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ACLU Sues Mississippi School for Excluding Teenager Wearing Tuxedo from Yearbook
Take action to help protect LGBT students like Ceara Sturgis from harassment and discrimination. Urge your Representative and Senators to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit this week against a Mississippi high school that excluded a female student's name and senior portrait from the yearbook rather than publish a photo of her in a tuxedo. The lawsuit charges that Ceara Sturgis was unfairly discriminated against by the Wesson Attendance Center based on her sex and unfair gender stereotypes.
Ceara was an honor student and a member of several sports teams at Wesson, where she attended school from kindergarten through her senior year. At home and at school, she dresses in clothing that is traditionally associated with boys and had previously not encountered any problems from her peers or teachers.
When she had her formal senior portrait taken, she opted to wear a tuxedo, rather than a drape that gives the appearance of wearing a dress or a blouse. Because of her attire, the school refused to publish her photo and name as part of the senior class. The lawsuit charges Ceara's rights were violated under Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex and sex stereotypes, and the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection.
"This should never have been an issue. Title IX and the Constitution prohibit school officials from forcing students to conform to gender stereotypes. Ceara should not have been expected to compromise her everyday appearance and identity for her senior portrait," said Bear Atwood, interim Legal Director for the ACLU of Mississippi. "The school's actions are discriminatory, unlawful and mean-spirited."
>> Take action to help protect LGBT students from harassment and discrimination. Ask your members of Congress to support the Student Non-Discrimination Act.
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A Disturbing Vision for the Future
The era that Net Neutrality supporters have long predicted is here-major companies have begun divvying up the internet. Last week, Google and Verizon announced a "policy framework" of how the rules for the internet could work in the future. The framework is a disturbing vision for the future. Wireless internet-such as services delivered over smart phones-would be completely unregulated; companies would be free to prioritize their own services-for everything from music to video to chat-over those of competitors.
Telecom providers could also do whatever they want with managed services, like Verizon's FIOS, that are offered directly to the companies but use the same wires and bandwidth as the regular internet. Regulators under this new framework would be neutered, reduced to policing a narrow area of consumer complaints with no power over vast swaths of the web. If these new rules are adopted, the regular internet will quickly become a backwater. All the investment and capital funding would go toward building up the managed services and wireless networks where the companies would have free reign to use their market power to make the most money.
But none of this is inevitable. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering action this fall to regulate telecommunications providers so that they have to provide full, fair service to everyone with no discrimination or deals between companies.
>> Take action: Support the FCC's efforts to restore Net Neutrality.
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Kevin Keith Clemency Request Rejected by Ohio Parole Board
Kevin Keith is a 46-year-old man currently on death row in the state of Ohio. Keith is scheduled to be put to death on September 15, despite overwhelming evidence that he is an innocent man.
Following a 12-hour clemency hearing last week, an Ohio parole board recommended that Governor Strickland deny Keith's clemency request. However, the parole board's recommendation to the governor is advisory and nonbinding-and can ultimately either be affirmed or ignored by the governor, who has done both during his tenure.
Keith's attorneys released a statement this week responding to the parole board's recommendation which states: "Brand new evidence-never heard by a jury-shows that another man admitted he was paid to commit the crime for which Mr. Keith stands to be executed. And still other evidence shows Mr. Keith has a strong alibi for the time of the crime, supported by four witnesses. These circumstances do not present an absolute certainty of guilt.
"That is why prominent individuals and nonpartisan organizations-including more than 30 former state and federal judges and prosecutors, the Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network (comprised of 61 innocence projects and legal organizations), more than 100 Ohio faith leaders and organizations, 13 leading eyewitness and memory experts, law enforcement, death row exonerees, and thousands of citizens across Ohio and the U.S.-support clemency for Mr. Keith."
Since the time of his arrest and throughout his 16 years on death row, Keith has steadfastly maintained his innocence. Gov. Strickland has the sole power to grant clemency in the case. Keith's lawyers are urging him to review the facts of the case on his own, without deferring to courts that have not reviewed all the evidence.
>> Take action: Sign a letter to Gov. Strickland today, asking him to prevent an irreversible sentence by granting clemency to Kevin Keith.
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