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We the undersigned call on the Obama Administration and Congress to immediately begin identifying and expunging from all government databases the massive accumulation of information collected by the Bush administration’s illegal domestic spying operations on millions of people who broke no law.
Some of these illegal spying programs were suspended and yet the government maintains the illegally collected data. These databases should be expunged.
We also oppose the continuation of other programs initiated during the Bush era which continue on in wholesale data collection and mass surveillance, unchecked and unabated. For instance, federal agents, local law enforcement and U.S. military personnel, with input from private right-wing political groups, continue to collect and report surveillance data, including fabricated disinformation, to the 72 government Fusion Centers around the United States. Fusion Centers have been found to target political, student, and religious organizations and activities.
The people of the United States have a legal right to be free from government surveillance, the type of which was initiated by the Bush administration on an enormous scale. Using the Sept. 11 attacks as a pretext, the Bush White House permitted the FBI, the National Security Agency, the CIA, Pentagon and other law-enforcement and military agencies to conduct unprecedented data collection against the people.
Thousands have been targeted because of their political beliefs and activities, their religious beliefs, their race and ethnicity, or because they inadvertently fell into one of the many broad categories to justify and execute the sweeping data collection programs. This is the modern-day variant of the discredited witch-hunts of the 1950s.
We call on the Obama Administration and Congress to order a complete audit of law-enforcement and military data and record-keeping systems and to disclose to the public the scope and parameters of data-collection on people and organizations in the United States.
The people’s rights protected under the Constitution are fundamentally diminished unless these illegal operations are halted and the rights of all people are restored by the identification of data collection programs, and the expunging of those databases.
Initial list of signers
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney GeneralNoam ChomskyGeronimo ji Jaga, former political prisoner held for 27 yearsCindy SheehanCynthia McKinneyMichel Shehadeh, LA8 defendant; Committee for JusticeMara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder Partnership for Civil Justice FundCarl Messineo, co-founder Partnership for Civil Justice FundJennifer Harbury, Human Rights LawyerMichael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights*Ron Kovic, author, Born on the 4th of JulyKathy Kelly, co-coordinator, Voices for Creative NonviolenceBlase and Theresa Bonpane, Office of the AmericasJohn Passacantando, former Executive Director, Greenpeace USAHeidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers GuildMahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American Society FreedomMichael Berg, father of Nicholas Berg, killed in IraqBrian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER CoalitionMounzer Sleiman, Vice Chair, National Council of Arab AmericansMichael Prysner, co-founder, March Forward!Michael Avery, former President, National Lawyers Guild, professor Suffolk Law SchoolMichael Steven Smith, Board of Directors, Center for Constitutional Rights*Carol Sobel, Civil Rights AttorneyJames Lafferty, Exec. Director, National Lawyers Guild Los AngelesEric Mar, Board of Supervisors, City & County of San FranciscoShakeel Syed, the Executive Director of the Shura Council of Southern California*Marina Drummer, Angola 3 Defense CommitteeFrank Dorrel, Publisher, Addicted to WarMike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace
* Organization listed for identification purposes only.
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