This alert is for the Massachusetts chapter but you can easily adapt it to your local area:
Dear Friends,
The more we find out, the worse it gets -- and the more urgent it is that we take action to stop the government's blatant abuse of power.
We now know that Verizon, AT&T and Bell South have voluntarily turned over to the Bush Administration tens of millions of phone call records of customers like you and me. This information is being compiled in what has been called "the largest database ever assembled." So much for government claims that its domestic spying is carefully targeted and limited to people with ties to Al Qaeda!
Meanwhile in Congress, the bipartisan "Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act" (H.R. 4943) mysteriously disappeared from the floor of the House of Representatives on May 2, 2006 when it was scheduled for consideration. On May 11, Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey, one of the bill's co-sponsors, wrote a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert asking what happened to the bill. "Did the bill disappear from the House floor schedule due to objections from some intelligence committee or entity?" he asked, fearing that it might be a victim of "extraordinary legislative rendition...Is it currently in some legislative Guantanamo Bay?"
Please consider taking these actions and forwarding this email to your friends so they can add their voices to ours:
1. Send the phone companies a message by signing the ACLU's "Don't Spy on Me" petition at
http://action.aclu.org/dontspy2. Call the Consumer Complaints line of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy at (617) 305-3531 and demand that they immediately intervene to stop Verizon from handing over your phone records to the government. Say they should create rules to protect your privacy.
3. Call Verizon at 1-800-870-9999 and tell them they have betrayed your trust. You can say you are considering switching to a phone company that does not violate your civil liberties and ask them to provide you information on how to do that. (That information about smaller local phone companies is available in the first few pages of your phone book, but we want them to have to answer that question.)
4. Call your Member of Congress and ask him to join Rep. Ed Markey in demanding a hearing on the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act (H.R. 4943). Ask him to co-sponsor this legislation.
5. Mark Wednesday May 17 in your calendar as the date of the National Call-In being organized by the ACLU, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, People For the American Way and other groups to let your Members of Congress know they must hold the President accountable and help restore checks and balances and the rule of law! Say you expect Congress to investigate, not legislate to "legalize" the warrantless domestic spying program. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to get connected to your Member's office.
Finally, please let us know if you would be able to take part at a weekday protest outside the Verizon office near Post Office Square in Boston. Which would be the best day of the week and better time for you – noon or 5 PM?
Thank you for everything you are doing to fight the abuse of power!
Brian Corr
Field Education Organizer
ACLU of Massachusetts
BCorr@ACLU-Mass.org
617.482.3170 ext. 321
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