Video: Interview with "The Visitor" filmmaker

Maybe you've already seen the film The Visitor, which is playing in theaters now. The story turns on the callousness of U.S. immigration policy after 9/11, and the ACLU has done a video interview with the film's creator, Tom McCarthy, here.

Video: Telling off the Supreme Court

Everyone in our office has been talking about this video clip from Boston Legal.

News: Bartenders serve up drinks, customs checks

Boston Globe reporter Maria Sacchetti quotes our Equal Justice Works Fellow, Anjali Waikar, in this story about bartenders at the Orpheum Theatre and Bank of America Pavillion who have reportedly been told to check the validity of passport stamps when serving customers who aren't U.S. citizens.

Waikar says this is "ridiculous."

News: ACLU queries Harvard's police

Reporter David Abel of the Boston Globe has written this story on our work to find out why the Harvard University Police Department has apparently been using an undercover photographer to take pictures of political protestors. The story quotes John Reinstein, our Legal Director, and refers to the fact that the ACLU of Massachusetts is representing two protestors who were arrested in March after trying to take pictures of Harvard's undercover photographer himself.

We'd like to know what they're doing and why, and whether Harvard is part of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which some other schools around the country have joined.

Reporter Jamison A Hill of the Harvard Crimson broke the story yesterday, and followed up today with an HUPD rebuttal that raises new questions.

Washington Post sheds more light on Fusion Centers in Massachusetts, nationwide

Both here in Massachusetts and across the country, the ACLU has been working to tell more people about the Fusion Centers: massive government clearinghouses of data on all of us. The Washington Post has done a story which sheds more light on exactly what kinds of data the Fusion Centers are pulling together.

One quoted source in the story says, "There is never ever enough information when it comes to terrorism." But there can be. As ACLU Policy Counsel and former FBI Special Agent Mike German has said, when you're looking for a needle in a haystack, it doesn't help to make the haystack bigger. The 9/11 attacks didn't happen because we didn't have the information we needed -- it's that the information we had wasn't followed through on.

Exposure: The woman behind the camera at Abu Ghraib

One of the speakers at our annual Bill of Rights Dinner this year will be Errol Morris, director of the Berlin Film Festival prize-winning film, S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure. In this film, Morris examines the incidents of abuse and torture of prisoners at the hands of U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.

In last week's New Yorker, Morris has co-written a long, fascinating article about Specialist Sabrina Harman, the soldier who took many of the infamous photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison. It's about what conditions were like and why she did what she did.

Counter-terrorism expert Mike German on Boston-area radio Saturday

As a 16-year federal law enforcement veteran, Mike German knows his stuff. As a former FBI Special Agent, he twice infiltrated neo-Nazi groups (using constitutionally sound methods) to prevent terrorist attacks. But he left the FBI to make Congress and the public aware of deficiencies in U.S. counterterrorism operations.

Today German serves as Policy Counsel for the ACLU and is the author of Thinking Like A Terrorist.

On Saturday, March 29, at 10am, he'll be on the Samantha Clemens Show, 91.5 WMFO Medford, to talk about Fusion Centers, the federally funded domestic intelligence centers that are collecting personal data about all of us, with little or no oversight.

I've heard Mike speak a couple of times, and he does a great job of puncturing the supposed need for the government to sweep away civil liberties in the name of the "War on Terror."

UPDATE:

Audio from the show is available here.

Government Surveillance 101

The Wall Street Journal has provided this excellent overview of government surveillance efforts and the concerns they raise.

Meanwhile, DailyKos blogger mcjoan has just written about the ACLU's reponse to the WSJ article, including more on the scope of the program (at least as much as we know about it) and a Freedom of Information Act request to find out more about aspects of the WSJ story.

Film: Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi was a young girl during the Iranian Revolution, and her crisp animated film Persepolis -- which has been playing for a few weeks now in places like Cambridge, Worcester, and Northampton -- tells her story.

High hopes for more freedom after the fall of the Shah were simply replaced with other forms of repression. Satrapi leaves Iran for Europe, twice, to escape the war with Iraq during the '80s and then the strictures of Iran's fundamentalist government, but the story of the film seems to be that you can never fully escape political upheaval and the denial of basic liberties in an entire country.

Persepolis is a black-and-white film, but its politics aren't. It's an unflattering look at Iran, but it doesn't let the U.S. off the hook either. Among other things, the film illustrates the role the U.S. played in inspiring the Iranian Revolution (the Shah's hated torturers had CIA training), and the repression of fundamentalist Iran is a warning about where the downward spiral of denying basic liberties can lead -- in any country.

News: Boston Police vs. political protest?

Boston Now's Senior Reporter James O'Brien looks in this article at whether the Boston Police have been cracking down selectively on the free speech rights of demonstrators.

In a recent case, performance artist Milan Kohout stood outside a downtown Bank of America location with a pile of nooses and a sign saying "Nooses on Sale." He says they referred to the bind that stock market and mortgage problems have put people in, but police confiscated the ropes and sign and charged him with being an unlicensed vendor.

The article quotes John Reinstein, our Legal Director, and there's also an audio recording of the interview with some detailed discussion of free speech issues.

House lets "Protect America Act" expire! (For now)

Good news -- at least for the moment. Here's a just-out release from the national ACLU.

=====

House Stands Up to Threats from the White House
on Domestic Surveillance
ACLU urges careful consideration of cherished constitutional rights

For Immediate Release: February 14, 2008

Washington, DC – The Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives stared down the White House today and decided to stick with their version of revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The House voted to adjourn without letting the phone companies off the hook for breaking the law by helping the government spy on Americans. The House is leaving town and allowing the unconstitutional Protect America Act to expire this weekend.

Statement from Caroline Fredrickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office:

“It is heartening that the House is standing up to the bullying from the president. The House is saying it will not give in to the administration’s lies and fear mongering. This administration has abused its power time and time again, and finally the House is standing up and saying no. The House is also sticking with the decision it made back in November not to give the phone companies and the Internet providers amnesty for illegal actions over the past six years when they provided Americans’ private calls and emails to the government without warrants.

“Members of the House were wise to let the clearly unconstitutional Protect America Act expire. Now, if the government wants to wiretap Americans on American soil it needs to get a warrant from the FISA court.

“The House sent the president a welcome reminder from the people that no one is above the law. Not the telecom providers. Not the White House.”

Fredrickson said that although the Protect America Act is set to expire this weekend, it doesn’t mean the new mass, untargeted surveillance programs authorized under that act will expire. Certain provisions of the Protect America Act will live beyond the law’s expiration date, including:

Orders under the Protect America Act can last for up to a year. Orders issued in the past six months will continue through their internal expiration date. So, for example, if the attorney general and director of national intelligence issue year-long orders on 2/15/08, they will run uninhibited until 2/15/09. (See PAA Section 6: Authorizations in Effect - Authorizations for the acquisition of foreign intelligence information pursuant to the amendments made by this Act, and directives issued pursuant to such authorizations, shall remain in effect until their expiration.)

Orders are not specific to individuals and can pick up new targets in the future. Although the orders are secret, we know the authority granted to the executive branch allowed them to create whole programs of surveillance that are not confined to any specific individual or facility – in fact, that breadth is precisely what the PAA is about. So, as programs continue, it stands to reason agents can pick up new suspects, phone lines, email accounts, etc., without the need to return to court.

In addition to all these continuing PAA authorities, if the government wants to listen to terrorists abroad it has a host of other options:

Collecting the call overseas where no warrant or order is required at all
Collecting the call here without an order under the 72-hour emergency provision
Collecting the call here under a FISA court order

To read more about the ACLU’s efforts to keep America safe and free and specifically to read about the FISA fight, visit www.aclu.org/fisa

Kennedy and Kerry opposed FISA

The Senate's latest cave-in, voting 68-29 to extend wiretapping authority and provide immunity for telecoms that went along with the White House's warrantless wiretaps when they were illegal, was outrageous.

At least Massachusetts can take consolation from the fact that Sen. Kennedy and Kerry stood on the right side.

The House now has the last chance to stop this before it goes to George Bush for his signature.

Keith Olbermann discusses FISA with John Dean

On Feb. 9, as the U.S. Senate prepared to give legal immunity to telecoms that went along with the White House's warrantless surveillance of American citizens, former White House Counsel John Dean discussed the issue with Keith Olbermann.

Keith Olbermann was one of our guest speakers at the ACLU of Massachusetts Bill of Rights Dinner 2007, and John Dean will be one of our speakers at our next Bill of Rights Dinner, on May 28, 2008.

CIA monitoring YouTube

Since even private phone conversations and email are monitored, I guess this monitoring of YouTube and social networking sites doesn't really come as a surprise.

Thanks to George Jenkins at I've Been Mugged for pointing this out.

Scolding AT&T

Tech writer Joel Johnson appeared recently on a tech talk-show called The Hugh Thompson Show. It's carried by the AT&T Tech Channel.

Johnson used the opportunity to take AT&T to task for its filtering of the Internet and collusion with the National Security Agency. You can read his account of how this went over, and also watch the video yourself.

Press Release: Ellsberg, Maddow to headline ACLU of Mass. Membership Conference

Amid 2008 election season, gathering will focus on "Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties," Saturday at Bentley College

BOSTON -- More than 300 people from Cape Cod to the Berkshires plan to attend the first annual membership conference of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, this Saturday, January 26, 2008, at Bentley College in Waltham. The conference theme is "Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties."

WHAT: ACLU Membership Conference: Reclaiming Our Civil Liberties
WHERE: Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts, Lindsay Hall, 1st Floor
WHEN: January 26, 2008, 12–6 pm

Speakers include Daniel Ellsberg, the writer, activist, and former U.S. military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and Rachel Maddow, the Air America host and frequent commentator on networks such as MSNBC, CNN, and LOGO. Ellsberg will speak on "2008 and Beyond: What will it take to end the abuse of power?" Maddow's speech is entitled "Don't Wait for November '08!"

The conference also features ten workshops:

• Moving Beyond the War on Drugs
  
• Confronting the Surveillance Society: Real ID, NSA Spying, Warrantless Wiretapping, and Fusion Centers
  
• Torture, Rendition and Guantánamo
  
• Next Steps for LGBT Rights
  
• Freedom of Speech and Association in the Post 9/11 World
  
• Racial, Ethnic & Religious Profiling in the Post 9/11 World
  
• Ensuring Reproductive Freedom
  
• Which Way Forward for the Immigrant Rights Movement?
  
• Blogging for Civil Liberties
  
• Building and Sustaining Strong Student Groups
  

"Many of us concerned about the abuses of power we've seen in our country in recent years are focused on the 2008 elections. That's important, but for our conference this year, we've chosen to focus on specific issues and what individual people can do about them," said Carol Rose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "The erosion of our civil liberties has been so severe that it is unlikely that the next president and Congress alone will be able to undo the damage. We need the sustained involvement of concerned, committed citizens, and that is what the ACLU is working to develop."

Video: Close Guantanamo

Video from our Boston demonstration to close the Guantanamo Bay prison is available here.

"Shut Down Guantánamo" Rally in Boston Grabs Attention

Brian Corr of the ACLU of Massachusetts sent in dispatches from the Close Guantánamo event in Boston.

Noon: We're about to leave the ACLU of Massachusetts office for our Shut Down Guantánamo action. We've got quite a crew assembled at out office! The fact that the Boston Herald ran an op-ed from our director Carol Rose today — that has helped get the word out!

12:30 p.m.: I'm in downtown Boston, Mass. The rare January thunderstorm has stopped and the sun might just peek through the clouds and winter fog.

Despite the weather, we have a great turnout for our Shut Down Guantánamo march. We teamed up with Amnesty International for a solemn procession and protest vigil in downtown Boston demanding the closure of Guantánamo prison.

12:50 p.m.: With orange jumpsuits and black coffins outside Sen. Kennedy's office we're attracting stares, some questions, and some people joining us! It's great to see that people from all parts of the political spectrum have come out in support of the the rule of law and the Constitution.

1 p.m.: Great speeches from Nancy Murray of the ACLU of Mass. and Josh Rubenstein of Amnesty rallied the crowd a minute ago, and now the Raging Grannies are singing "Rummy Says."


This is really something for the middle of January in New England...

Op-Ed: Justice delayed, denied for Gitmo detainees

Today the Boston Herald ran an op-ed by Carol Rose, our Executive Director, about the ongoing disgrace of the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.  Today is the sixth anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners there.

News: Interview with Nancy Murray, our Director of Education

After the release last week of the ACLU's new report Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice, reporter Mary Thang of New England Ethnic News talked to Nancy Murray, Director of Education for the ACLU of Massachusetts, about ongoing racial discrimination in America and US government attempts to "whitewash" the problem.  Thang's interview with Murray is available here.