ACLU of MD Update – 4.18.08 

1. Real ID News! “Real ID, Real Exposed” Campaign, Video Launched on College Campuses

2. Mark Your Calendar! Marylanders Invited to ACLU Membership Conference, Lobby Day

3.  National ACLU News! ACLU Sues Pentagon To Uncover Records of Deaths At Guantánamo

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1. Real ID News! “Real ID, Real Exposed” Campaign, Video Launched on College Campuses

http://www.aclu-md.org/realID/RealID_RealExposedPR.html

As part of a growing national movement in opposition to implementation of the federal Real ID Act by the states, the ACLU of Maryland has launched a campaign to educate young people and all Marylanders about why Real ID should be rejected.

The “Real ID, Real Exposed” campaign features an edgy video on YouTube, posters, postcards, website, and Myspace page designed to raise the profile of Real ID in Maryland and help organize the increasing number of people and organizations who oppose this misguided law.

The Real ID Act creates an unprecedented national identity card, mandates that states expose the personal and private information of their residents to heightened risks of identity theft and data fraud, has a national price tag in the billions of dollars, and fails to establish real security. ACLU is calling on Maryland to join 17 other states in rejecting Real ID implementation.

“Real ID is a real nightmare for Marylanders’ privacy, freedoms and pocketbooks,” said Susan Goering, Executive Director of the ACLU of Maryland. “Real ID would also leave Marylanders ‘Real Exposed’ to identity theft by warehousing personal information like Social Security numbers and birth certificates in one national database that would accessible to federal and DMV employees – or whoever hacks in.”

Maryland ACLU’s edgy YouTube video brings home the fact that, with Real ID, the personal information of over 250 million Americans will be in one database. It asks: “Should the government be enabling one stop shopping for identity thieves?”

The “star” of the video is John Roemer IV, who opposes the Bush Administration’s attempts to compromise civil liberties following 9/11. Mr. Roemer is a 48-year-old Baltimore County resident who graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences, and is the owner of Roemer Ecological Services, Inc. He coaches cross country and track and field for Hereford High School, and is an avid runner. Mr. Roemer is also the son of John Roemer III, former Executive Director of the Maryland ACLU from the late sixties to early eighties. The younger John Roemer witnessed his father's deep involvement in 1960s peace and civil rights movements, which inspired him to be politically active in his own life.

A street team will be distributing posters and postcards about the campaign on college campuses across the state – from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore.

Watch the video! Click here for the “Real ID, Real Exposed” campaign:
http://RealID-Exposed.org

Click here to join the ACLU of Maryland’s Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/aclumd

Click here to learn more about the federal Real ID Act:
http://realnightmare.org/

2. Mark Your Calendar! Marylanders Invited to ACLU Membership Conference, Lobby Day

The ACLU Membership Conference is coming up on June 8-10 in Washington, DC. The Maryland ACLU’s new constituents’ action network -- “Maryland ACLU CAN” – will be hosting a special Maryland Caucus reception at the membership conference for all members and activists from the Free State. Stay tuned for more details!

We’re also organizing Marylanders for Lobby Day on Capitol Hill, which will be June 10 from 2–5 PM. There will be training sessions for the Hill visits throughout the conference. Make sure to register for Lobby Day through the ACLU of Maryland affiliate office by e-mailing us at sachs@aclu-md.org. 

Click here to learn more and register for the membership conference: http://www.aclu.org/conference/2008/

3. National ACLU News! ACLU Sues Pentagon To Uncover Records of Deaths At Guantánamo

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/34926prs20080417.html

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit earlier this week to force the Department of Defense to release all records relating to deaths, suicide attempts and homicide attempts at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay since 2002. The ACLU's lawsuit follows a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for those documents, including records relating to four specific detainee deaths that the government categorized as suicides. To date, the Defense Department has failed to comply with the ACLU's FOIA request.

"Over six years into Guantánamo's existence, there have been dozens of suicide attempts and four apparent suicides and yet the Bush administration refuses to come clean about what happened, when, and most importantly, why," said Hina Shamsi, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. Shamsi continues: "The secrecy surrounding deaths at Guantánamo hides the dire consequences of indefinite detention from the American public. The prison camp is a blight on America's conscience and the public needs to know the truth about what is going on there."

According to news reports, hunger strikes and suicide attempts at Guantánamo began soon after the facility opened in 2002. In 2006, after three prisoners apparently killed themselves by hanging, government officials claimed their deaths were a "PR move." The government refused to release suicide notes, the existence of which was widely reported. Last year, another detainee reportedly committed suicide and a fifth prisoner died of what the government labeled "natural causes."

Overall, the Defense Department has reported that five detainees have died since 2002 and 41 have attempted suicide between 2002 and 2006. However, these figures most likely underestimate the actual number of attempted suicides at Guantánamo during this period. Although the Defense Department has acknowledged opening investigations into each of the four reported suicides, it has released no records relating to any of them or to the dozens of suicide attempts it admits have occurred.

Since the U.S. government first transferred detainees to Guantánamo in January 2002, the offshore detention facility has damaged America's reputation around the world. At the heart of the controversy surrounding Guantánamo are Bush administration policies that violate core constitutional principles of due process and justice: indefinite detention, lack of independent judicial review, and widespread abuse.

Click here to read more details about the ACLU's FOIA request: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/34913lgl20080417.html

Click here to read about the recently published book summarizing the FOIA documents by Jaffer and Amrit Singh called, “Administration of Torture”:
http://www.aclu.org/administrationoftorture

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