Friends of Brad Will

Letter to Representative Jerrold Nadler

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Representative Jerrold Nadler
201 Varick Street, Suite 669
New York, NY 10014
Tel. 212-367-7350

Dear Honorable Mr. Nadler,

This letter is to thank you for your efforts to demand answers in the misuses of the Patriot Act. Please use the oversight hearings to inquire about surveillance and intelligence that may have been shared with foreign governments about American Citizen and New Yorker Brad Will.

As you know, American journalist and human rights activist Brad Will was shot dead in Mexico on October 27, 2006 while filming and reporting from Oaxaca, where a months long strike by teachers had grown into a widespread social movement. Hundreds of local residents were arrested, but not yet the killers of Brad Will, though they are probably captured on film. Many people have been killed. Numerous federal elected officials have written to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice regarding the investigation into the murder of Mr. Will, including Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Jose E. Serrano in New York, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Hilda Solis of California, and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona.

As Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, your outrage over reports that an internal FBI audit shows that agents possibly violated the law or internal rules more than 1,000 times while misusing the National Security Letter (NSL) authority vastly expanded by the Patriot Act can translate into action. As you have pointed out, the NSL authority was used by FBI agents to gather information on domestic phone calls, e-mails and other communications as well as individual financial records. As Co-Chair of the bipartisan Patriot Act Reform Caucus, we commend you in stating:

“Today’s reports only heighten the clear need for fixes to the NSL authority. The Justice Department’s Inspector General previously found wide-spread abuses of the FBI’s authority to issue NSLs – we now know that the problems go much further than initially disclosed. From the beginning, I have said that unchecked power would lead to rampant abuse. It’s clear, yet again, that reforms are needed.

I hope that in the series of hearings entitled, ‘The Constitution in Crisis: The State of Civil Liberties in America.’ you will work with your colleagues to consider abuses of the FBI’s investigatory power and the unchecked collection of information on innocent Americans, particularly Brad Will.

Brad Will was apparently targeted while serving as a journalist in Mexico. It seems that American law enforcement agencies have been sharing selective intelligence information with foreign governments, including that of Mexico. It is imperative that we learn if Mr. Will was a subject of the illegal surveillance under the National Security Letter, and, if so, what information was obtained and with whom was it shared.

Thank you again for your strong leadership on this issue and I look forward to your written reply.

Sincerely,

Name: _________________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________________ Zip: ____________