To the editor:

Congress must pass a FISA bill that protects our national security and preserves our civil liberties and oppose retroactive immunity for phone companies that participated in the Bush-Cheney administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

The FISA bill the White House wants would give the attorney general the sole discretion to provide retroactive and prospective immunity to telecommunication companies that cooperated with the administration’s illegal wiretap program. The proposed FISA bill would bypass checks and balances by allowing administration officials to issue yearlong surveillance orders, without any court pre-approval, as long as one participant in the conversation is foreign.

Congress must stand up to scare tactics that suggest congressional efforts to get the FISA bill right this time will invite another terrorist attack.

There is nothing more important to the fabric of our communities and nation than the right to privacy and the freedom of expression. Sadly, we have witnessed for seven years the results of fear-mongering. It has damaged our international reputation and adversely affected our national identity.

The proposed Senate FISA bill would allow broad dragnet surveillance orders that could easily sweep up Americans’ communications. It is tyranny.

Dwight Hilpman,

Lawrence