Democracy In Albany

I understand that one of the other candidates finally caught up with us and made a statement in opposition as well.

Peace,

Darius Shahinfar on FISA Agreement
Calls FISA compromise a compromise of Constitutional rights

June 20, 2008

(ALBANY, NY) Today, Darius Shahinfar, candidate for the 21st Congressional District, called the compromise reached on amendment of the Federal Information Surveillance Act (FISA) a compromise of Constitutional principles.

"The critical problem of this compromise is that it contains a free pass for the Bush Administration's and telecommunication companies' past actions. The Administration's use of warrantless wiretaps cannot be reviewed, and the process to review the telecommunications companies' participation in the wiretapping program leads inevitably to immunity for those companies" Shahinfar said.

Darius' remarks come at a time when the controversial piece of legislation would allow immunity to phone companies who currently face lawsuits for violating the constitutional rights of their members, according to plaintiff claims.

"By passing this piece of legislation, we are telling our government and our citizens that as long as the President tells you to do so, breaking the law is legal. No one, not even the President, is above our laws, especially when it comes to the issue of protecting our Constitutional rights."

When asked further of his views about FISA, Shahinfar continued, "FISA was created 30 years ago, is applicable with today's advanced technology and has been a vital tool in collecting intelligence for our nations' security. It had not been an issue, until this administration decided to use it improperly and against its intended purpose. This will not make Americans any safer from threats at home or abroad; rather it will put us at the mercy of secret agreements between corporations and our government."

Ask yourself: how many laws have you yourself broken that you then just phoned up the right people in Congress to have them specifically excuse your lawbreaking?  None?  Don't you think that option should be available to you, the average, ordinary citizen, and not just to big telecom companies?

Steck has the organization to beat the lobyist and lobbyist-supported candidates.

Here's the letter:

To the editor:
I read with great interest David King's article 'A Time to Fight' on July 3, 2008.

As a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress in New York's 21st congressional district, I wanted to add my voice to the concerns regarding recent action taken in the Congress to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

I do not support retroactive immunity for any industry that violates the law and I do not support secret Courts.  Judicial power may be abused like any other.

However, the immunity provisions are not the worst aspect of the FISA revisions.  There are two major problems with the new law.  First, the new FISA revisions extend the time under which the NSA may conduct a wiretap from 72 hours to a week.  No need has been demonstrated to increase this time period.  Second, the bill gives wholesale approval to bulk monitoring of electronic communications (primarily email and phone calls). This monitoring is based on software algorithms of dubious validity that determine whether or not a person's behavior patterns suggest that he or she is acting in a way that merits eavesdropping.

This concept, which is really a form of profiling, flies in the fact of our longstanding mandates of probable cause and reasonable suspicion that require attention to individual circumstances.  As a civil rights attorney, I am aware of no conceivable constitutional basis for this type of surveillance.

The recent revisions to FISA is an example of why I strongly believe that we need members of Congress who will not only challenge a Republican President, but who are also willing to stand up to members of our own Party's leadership when they are wrong.

Sincerely,

Phil Steck