Fwd: Just Say No to Wiretaps

[Boris Groendahl <boris@berlin.snafu.de>]

Ein Vorschlag: Einrichtung einer Mailingliste "Digitale Unterschrift". 
Oder besser noch: Einrichtung einer Mailingliste: "Donnerhacke". Als 
einziger Subscriberwird zugelassen: Donnerhacke.

Hier ist zur Abwechslung mal was Wichtiges.


------------------------------------
Subject:     Just Say No to Wiretaps
Sent:        30.07.1996 5:40 Uhr
Received:    31.07.1996 9:49 Uhr
From:        Audrie Krause, igc.apc.org!akrause@bga.com
To:          igc.org!akrause@giga.realtime.net

PLEASE RE-POST WHERE APPROPRIATE


Cyber-Rights Activists, 

Americans of all political persuasions should be quite wary of President
Clinton's attempt to use the recent tragic bombings of TWA Flight 800 and
the Olympics as an excuse to expand the use of government wiretaps and 
other
forms of electronic surveillance.  While it may arguably diminish the
potential for terrorist attacks, allowing the government to stomp all over
our civil liberties and intrude into our private business will not 
increase
our personal safety.

Terrorism isn't limited to the "private sector," and expanded government 
use
of electronic surveillance actually poses a far greater threat to most
American citizens than terrorist bombs.  It's time for all of us to "Just
Say No" to wiretaps!

President Clinton has called upon Congress to grant expanded wiretapping
authority and authorize other new tools to fight terrorism.  The 
President's
request provides online activists with an unparalleled organizing
opportunity. There is a history of strong bipartisan opposition to 
increased
use of government surveillance.  The issue touches everyone.  It is an 
issue
around which online activists can begin to reach out to our offline
colleagues, form coalitions, and initiate a broad-based citizen action
campaign.  And this is exactly what we must do if we hope to succeed in
preventing the government from expanding its use of surveillance 
technology.

And most of us do want to prevent the expansion of wiretap authority,
although our reasons may vary.  Some of us are concerned about the impact 
on
political expression, others worry more about government intrusion into 
our
private lives. Our individual reasons are not as important as our common
interest in achieving a goal.  And the goal is to prevent President 
Clinton
from capitalizing on legitimate public sentiment regarding the recent
bombing tragedies in order to win Congressional approval for expanded
wiretap authority.

There is no question that the bombings were horrible acts of terrorism.  
But
we won't put an end to terrorism by allowing our government to intrude 
more
into our personal lives.  What we will do is further erode our rights and
diminish our personal privacy.  And if we want to prevent this, we must
begin to work with others in our communities who share our concerns.

I recently initiated NetAction for just this purpose.  My goal is to 
promote
effective grassroots citizen activism on technology-based social and
political issues, including the use of technology in government
surveillance.  I hope to accomplish this by creating coalitions that link
online activists with community-based organizations.  I am interested in
working with cyber-rights activists who would like to learn more about how
to build effective grassroots coalitions around this issue.  Please 
contact
me <akrause@igc.org> if you are interested in learning more.

Audrie 

 


--
NetAction   ***   Audrie Krause   ***   akrause@igc.org
Phone: (415) 775-8674     * * *     Fax: (415) 673-3813
Mail: 601 Van Ness Avenue #631, San Francisco, CA 94102




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