Current Reason to contact your R

Dear Friends:

On Saturday, March 8, President Bush vetoed H.R. 2082, an important piece of anti-torture legislation that would have banned the use of waterboarding, stress positions, induced hypothermia, and other so-called "harsh" interrogation techniques by requiring all U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, to abide by the restrictions in the Army Field Manual while conducting interrogations. H.R. 2082 was passed by a majority of both houses of Congress.

Sometime this week, possibly as soon as tomorrow, the U.S. House will vote on whether or not to override the President's veto. It is very difficult to override a veto (it requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress), so the attempt to override may not be successful. That said, we want to make every effort to convince as many Members of Congress as possible to vote for the override.

Please call your Representative in Congress and urge him or her to vote to override the President's veto of H.R. 2082, the Intelligence Authorization bill. To contact your Member of Congress you can call the Capitol switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask to speak with your Representative.

Thank you for your efforts to end U.S.-sponsored torture.

As the chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees tasked with modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), we are working hard in Congress to pass a FISA bill that protects our national security, preserves our civil liberties, and denies the Senate's retroactive immunity to phone companies that participated in the Bush-Cheney Administration warrantless surveillance program.

Now we're at a critical juncture. The House and Senate have passed different versions of the new FISA legislation, and we are meeting to resolve those differences. The president and his Republican allies are using this opportunity to pressure our colleagues to give in and grant retroactive immunity. President Bush has been irresponsibly making false claims that we are more vulnerable to terrorism until a new bill is passed.

That's why we need your help, right now, to push back against the White House while the final FISA bill is being negotiated. Will you write a letter-to-the-editor of your local newspaper to speak out and build grassroots support for fixing FISA the right way? Help us respond to White House scare tactics, preserve our civil liberties, and reject the Senate's telecom immunity.

We're pushing back against right-wing pressure. So now the Bush-Cheney Administration is ratcheting up their scare tactics and suggesting that congressional Democrats' efforts to get the FISA bill right this time will invite another terrorist attack. They are trying to scare Congress and the American people into accepting a FISA bill that includes the Senate-passed retroactive telecom immunity and erodes our privacy rights.

They've even launched a controversial television ad evoking ticking time-bomb imagery straight out of primetime's 24 to shock the American people into supporting another flawed FISA law. We've seen these tactics before, but we can't let them get away with it this time. We are pushing for a better FISA bill in Congress, but a few loud voices in Washington are more determined than ever to ram through another flawed piece of legislation.

Your letter-to-the-editor will ensure that friends and neighbors in your own community see past the Bush-Cheney Administration's fear-mongering. And when your Members of Congress turn to the editorial page in their hometown newspaper, they'll know where you stand on siding with those who conducted illegal warrantless surveillance.

We have teamed up to push for a final FISA bill that protects our national security, preserves our civil liberties, and refuses the Senate-passed retroactive immunity for telecom companies. But we need your support to get this bill passed.

Thank you for taking the time to write a letter-to-the-editor of your local newspaper, and for working with us to get FISA right this time.