Letter to my Rep. Van Hollen on Friday's wiretap hearing

[LiberalEsto]

Dear Congressman Van Hollen:

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your courageous decision to join with Rep. John Conyers and others to conduct hearings this Friday on the unprecedented and probably unconstitutional domestic surveillance by the current Administration.

While I have long been concerned about issues of government intrusion into Americans' personal lives and communications, these latest revelations by the NY Times alarm me as to the future of America's democracy.

I was privileged to be among the 3,000 who heard former Vice-President Al Gore speak on this issue yesterday at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington DC.

Gore raised many serious issues not only about unchecked domestic surveillance lacking the sanction of FISA court orders, but also about reports of extralegal kidnappings and renditions of suspects with terrorist connections.

This is not the land of liberty I grew up in!

I echo Mr. Gore's concerns, and wholeheartedly support your efforts to get to the bottom of this deeply disturbing matter.

Many thanks. (Please do not trouble to respond to this -- you have many more valuable things to do with your time, particularly in preparing for the hearing this Friday!)

XXXX

Note: WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressmen John Conyers, Jr., Bobby Scott and Chris Van Hollen and other Members will hold a Democratic Hearing to consider the legal ramifications of President Bush's warrantless surveillance.

Regarding the hearing, Conyers stated, "last month all 17 House Judiciary Democrats called on Chairman Sensenbrenner to convene hearings to investigate the President's use of the National Security Agency to conduct surveillance involving U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, in apparent contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. As our request has since been ignored, it is our job, as Members of Congress, to review the program and consider whether our criminal laws have been violated and our citizen's constitutional rights trampled upon. We simply cannot tolerate a situation where the Administration is operating as prosecutor, judge and jury and excluding Congress and the courts from providing any meaningful check or balance to the process."


Link to info on hearing: http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/news2006/0110-23.htm