Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 22:52:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: belmonte@MIT.EDU (Matthew Belmonte)
To: senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Subject: please co-sponsor S.1552, the Protecting the Rights of Individuals Act

Dear Senator Kennedy

Twenty-two months ago, you made the mistake of voting for the USA
PATRIOT Act.  I hope that you'll now consider reversing that mistake
by co-sponsoring S.1552, the Protecting the Rights of Individuals
Act.  By amending the very vague and expansive language used in the
USA PATRIOT Act, this important legislation would restore some of the
force of the Bill of Rights.

Specifically, S.1552 would limit the use of secret searches to cases
of danger to human life, strengthen judicial review of these secret
search warrants, and force the Department of Justice to report to
Congress and the public on the use of such warrants.  It would narrow
the legal definition of `terrorism,' in order to limit the potential
for abuse of USA PATRIOT powers in cases that have nothing to do with
actual terrorism.  It would limit access to private records to cases
in which the individual to whom those records pertain is reasonably
suspected of being an agent of a foreign power.  It would restrict law
enforcement's ability to monitor telephones and library computers to
just those individuals who are suspected of a committing a crime,
rather than allowing monitoring of all users as is now the case.  It
would limit the use of data-mining technologies, which allow the
government to develop dossiers on large numbers of people who are not
suspected of any crimes.  It would restrict the use of secret evidence
against persons accused of crimes, by requiring disclosure of all
relevant evidence under the terms of the Classified Information
Procedures Act.

All of these provisions of S.1552 should be viewed as self-evident
consequences of the Bill of Rights.  It's a shame that the United
States needs legislation in order to realise them.  Again, I hope that
you'll co-sponsor S.1552, the Protecting the Rights of Individuals
Act.

Sincerely

Matthew Belmonte
[address]