The 9/11 attacks acted as a catalyst not only for the American military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also historic assaults by the federal government against the privacy rights of all American citizens. From the blatant violations and circumventions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), to the invasive nature and unconstitutional abuses of the Patriot Act, GAP has defined itself as an advocate for 4th Amendment rights and the constitutional right to privacy. GAP supports legislative and Executive branch policies that roll back vast post-9/11 government surveillance powers.
GAP came out strongly against the “updated” FISA provisions in 2008, which served to justify the Bush administration’s willful violations of the constitution by spying on American citizens’ communications without securing necessary court oversight and warrants. Attached to this updated legislation were the retroactive immunity clauses for the telecommunications companies that worked with the Bush administration to violate the rights of millions of Americans.
GAP represented one whistleblower, Babak Pasdar, who witnessed a major telecommunications carrier providing the federal government with unfettered access to every communication its users enjoyed – cell phones, web traffic, e-mails, etc.
