Abercrombie Links FISA Amendments Act With Bush Abuses
Congressman Neil Abercrombie represents Hawaii in the U.S. House of Representatives, but on June 20, 2008, he also represented all Americans who believe that freedom is the best source of security. Abercrombie voted against the FISA Amendments Act, criticizing the changes that the proposed law would make to the essential fabric of American freedom:
“These changes will not make Americans any safer from terrorists. They simply reflect George W. Bush’s belief that the President has virtually unlimited power to ignore Constitutional protections for individual privacy and civil rights.”
It’s like Congressman Abercrombie says – the FISA Amendments Act establishes a Big Brother spy network that enables the President of the United States to spy on practically anyone he wants, while being accountable to no one. The FISA Amendments Act takes the FISA court, and makes it a mute observer, unable to stop lawbreaking even when the White House admits that illegal spying is taking place. There can be no more certain privacy, if the FISA Amendments Act is passed.
President George W. Bush seems to think that he can keep secrets from the American people, but that the American people are not entitled to their own private lives. Abercrombie noted this dangerous quirk of character, stating,
“President Bush seems unnerved at the prospect of American citizens filing lawsuits to protect their Constitutional rights. I wish he was as concerned about protecting citizens from giant corporations as he is about protecting giant corporations from citizens.”
Thanks to Representative Abercrombie for his important defense of the fourth amendment and its guarantee that we shall all be protected from unreasonable search and seizure of the sort that have been typical of the Bush warrantless wiretapping program.
