SHEILA JACKSON LEE LOVES PRIVACY? CISPA AND YOU! YOU'VE GOT TO BE RIGHT ONCE IN YOUR LIFE...

April 25, 2012 Dear Liberty Activist,   Click here to urge the House to defeat the Orwellian amendment to the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Privacy Act (CISPA) offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee that would let the Department of Homeland Security spy on Americans! And to defeat CISPA while they're at it. ALG President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement on an amendment offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to the "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Privacy Act" (CISPA) that would authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security "to acquire, intercept, retain, use, and disclose communications and other system traffic that are transiting to or from or stored on Federal systems": "Any reasonable person should see the amendment proposed by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee as far-reaching and Orwellian. The Jackson Lee amendment to CISPA is the purest expression of totalitarianism ever proposed in the halls of Congress. It is breathtaking the speed with which the police state is being advanced in this legislation. "This sweeping amendment by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee would allow the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, a political appointee, to monitor the nation's entire digital infrastructure. There are no communications that do not 'transit to' or through existing Federal systems including those run by the FCC, and based on recent disclosures by NSA whistleblower William Binney, there are no communications that are not 'stored on' Federal systems in some way. "That means every communication in the world would be accessible by the Secretary of Homeland Security. And since it also includes all communications on Federal systems, that would include all congressional correspondence, all congressional inquiries into anything, all internal White House communications, all sealed federal court documents, all military communications, and all intelligence gathering in the world. In short, all of the most sensitive top secret and privileged information would funnel to a politically appointed official who may be tempted to misuse it. "The Secretary need only certify that acquiring the information is necessary to counter cybersecurity threats. Since the Secretary will have no way of knowing which information will be relevant to that purpose until the data is filtered and analyzed, she will have to acquire it all in the process. "Once acquired, the amendment even allows the information to be used beyond the purview of protecting national security or against cyber threats. Under Lee's amendment, 'information obtained pursuant to activities authorized under this subsection will … be retained, used, or disclosed… with the approval of the Attorney General, for law enforcement purposes when the information is evidence of a crime which has been, is being, or is about to be committed.' Suddenly, the nation's vast intelligence and military infrastructure will be at the fingertips of the Department of Justice to be used for targeted, malicious, political prosecutions." You know what to do! Let'sget on CapWiz now and urge members of the House to defeat the Jackson Leeamendment to CISPA, and defeat CISPA itself for good measure. Much of the debate surrounding CISPA is focusing on provisions creating a right of service providers to decide whether or not they wish to share user data with the government.  In the process, everyone is pretending or assuming that the government is not already collecting and storing this data through various intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency. Recent disclosures by former NSA official William Binney on Democracy Now challenge that assumption in an alarming fashion. By Binney's account, not only has the government been gathering intelligence domestically on U.S. citizens for some years now by monitoring the entire network, but that it has already developed a vast database of most every electronic communication in the world. CISPA does not address these concerns at all. So it must go the same way as SOPA. We don't need this sort of Orwellian surveillance state. This legislation must be defeated. Please send your letters to the editor to Robert@getliberty.org. We publish all points of view! Keep fighting! For Liberty, Robert Romano Senior Editor of ALG News www.getliberty.org P.S. Want to help us keep fighting? Help us out with a donation today! Or mail it to: Americans for Limited Government, 9900 Main Street, Suite 303, Fairfax, VA 22031.   Click here to unsubscribe from receiving Liberty Action Alerts. Click here to update your email address. 9900 Main Street, Suite 303 Fairfax, VA 22031