US ‘Fax Blitz’

An urgent action alert is being distributed by a number of Irish-American organisations.

The Senate Foreign Relations committee will vote on moving the US/UK Extradition Treaty to the full Senate for a vote on Thursday September 7, 2006

We need to contact every Senator on Sept. 1st and up until September 7th with our FAX BLITZ

Majority Office FAX (202) 224-0836
Minority Office FAX (202) 228-3612

1. FAX The Majority Office (they set the Meeting)
2. FAX The Minority Office (they need to know there is opposition)
3. FAX Your Own Senator (List Attached)
4. FAX a Senator or Senators on the Committee
5. Even a Short FAX Counts

The time is now to put the pressure on your Senator and every member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to STOP the US/UK Treaty in it’s tracks.

We all need to show our opposition to the US/UK Extradition treaty and be sure to contact our Senators and let them know of your opposition. (https://www.congress.com/)

If they are in an election, one third of them are, they can definitely be pressured. Please Fax and phone them both in Washington and at their home offices.

Do not write a letter it will never get to them but be sure to FAX.

This treaty and all modern treaties would take away many of the rights we have had for more than 200 years under the Constitution of the United States

. Your right to a day in court would be removed and the decision to extradite and American citizen would now become a decision of the Executive Branch of the government of the USA.

. American citizens could be arrested and held for up to 60 days at the request of a foreign government, in this case the United Kingdom.

. The crime that you are arrested and detained for may not be a crime in the USA

. There is NO Statute of Limitations meaning that American citizens could be extradited for an offense committed before the treaty was in force.

. There is no need to produce evidence of probable cause and indeed no evidence needs to be presented before the extradition. Combined with no day in court this is especially frightening.

This treaty is without question political. It is a Thank You to the UK for supporting the foreign policy of our government but that only emphasizes the fact that you do not wish to be at the mercy of a politically motivated Executive Branch of the United States government when there is a question of extradition no matter which party controls the Executive. REMEMBER Treaties are Forever

Pressure to move the US/UK Treaty at this time is a direct response to the fact that three UK Citizens, Nat West Three, were extradited to the United States using the treaty with all of the actions above, which only proves our case. They are now being held in the United States where they were allowed bail but cannot leave the USA. This caused a political uproar in the UK and both Parliament and the House of Lords passed resolutions condemning the treaty. This needs to be known by your Senator.

Please be sure to ask these questions of your Senator:

** Do we, as American citizens, want our rights being removed to a political executive branch for reasons of security? (Both the Justice and State departments admitted that no extradition request had failed under the 1986 supplemental treaty.)

** Do we want extradition of U.S. citizens overseas to a foreign judicial system to possibly be just another tool of foreign policy for our elected Executive?

** Do we want our politically dependent executive branch to solely control the decision to extradite American citizens overseas instead of our judicial branch?

** Do we want American citizens to be sacrificed to a modern fast track extradition process so that the State and Justice departments can have less paperwork?

** What is the role of the Senate in the process of the approval of this treaty? Is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and each and every Senator playing its full Constitutional role in the process?

** Should foreign governments be allowed to go on a witch hunt going back over possible violations of their laws which may have occurred before this treaty?

** Does the U.S. Senate wish to stifle free speech which may be threatened by an extradition which requires no evidence of the crime to be presented before a court in the United States?

Fax numbers of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

Lamar Alexander (TN-R) 202-228-3398
George Allen (VA-R) 202-224-5432
Joe Biden (DE-D) 202-224-0139
Barbara Boxer (CA-D) 415-956-6701
Lincoln Chafee (RI-R) 202-228-2853
Norm Coleman (MN-R) 202-224-1152
Chris Dodd (CT-D) 202-224-1083
Russ Féingold (WI-D) 202-224-2725
Chuck Hagel (NE-R) 202-224-5213
John Kerry (MA-D) 202-224-8525
Richard Lugar (IN-R) 202-228-0360
Mel Martinez (FL-R) 202-224-3041
Lisa Murkowski (AK-R) 202-224-5301
Bill Nelson (FL-D) 202-228-2183
Barack Obama (IL-D) 202-228-0400
Paul Sarbanes (MD-D) 202-224-1651
John Sununu (NH-R) 202-228-4131
George Voinovich (OH-R) 202-228-1382

Urgent Appeal