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Homepage introduction text and picture

The problem: 

Programs that fight poverty, provide essential services in underserved communities, and promote human rights and peace are being hindered by laws such as the Patriot Act and Bush's Executive Order 13224.

Our solution:

Reform US counterterrorism laws and policies so they protect both our national security and the vital work of charities.

Latest Blog Entries

Austin Plane Attack Highlights Double Standards
Seema Ahmad, Human Rights Fellow at the Open Society Institute
March 4, 2010
Will Lieberman Use Fort Hood Shooting to Crush our Right to be Radical?
Sue Udry, Director of the Defending Dissent Foundation
February 16, 2010
Now is a Good Time for a Good Faith Standard
Kay Guinane
February 12, 2010
Looking Ahead to 2010
Kay Guinane and Suraj K. Sazawal
December 31, 2009
more

News

President Urged to Nominate Appointees to Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
March 9, 2010

On March 1, 2010 a coalition of 25 civil liberty advocacy groups, think tanks and other nonprofit organizations sent a letter to President Obama requesting the nomination of appointees to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB).  According to the letter, the PCLOB “is one of the few safeguards adopted to protect Americans from improper intrusions into our privacy and civil liberties” from national security laws. With all five seats on the board vacant since late 2008, the letter is calling for the President to “appoint individuals immediately.” Excessive government intrusion into nonprofit programs is affected, in procedures such as USAID's proposed Partner Vetting System.  

Planned Parenthood & Others Targets of Unlawful Intelligence Collection Activities Between 2001-2008
March 8, 2010

A heavily redacted 800 page document released by the Department of Defense (DoD) in February 2010 shows that military intelligence officials spied on Planned Parenthood and other domestic groups between 2001 through 2008. Released to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed in July 2009, the document characterizes some of the intelligence collection as “unlawful.”

House Joins Senate in Passing Bill to Extend Patriot Act Provisions
February 26, 2010

Update: President Obama signed a one-year extension of three sections of the USA Patriot Act on Feb. 27, 2010 without any restrictions on the provisions that many lawmakers and civil liberty advocates sought to safeguard American civil liberties.

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