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Work in progress. Initial proposal for 2009 by Jon, December 6-9; most recent major update, January 21. (Goals updated Feb 10, minor updates April 27) Please see the 2009 Strategy Backgrounder for more information, including a brief history, and more about our strengths and challenges. As usual, there are discussion threads at the bottom of the page. Feedback, please!

Overview

Situation

• Suits by the ACLU and EFF mean that telecom immunity has not yet come into force. See ? for the most recent legal roundup.
  
• The Obama administrations actions and appointments in the first 100 days told us a lot about their intentions. As of late April, the new DOJ has published a series of legal memos from 2001-2004 revealing the shoddy legal framework and hinting at the extent of abuses, but in the courts has consistently backed the Bush Administration's positions and argued for a strong "state secrets" privilege. It's increasingly clear that it will take major grassroots activism to change anything.
  
• The Liberty and Security coalition's Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress, EFF’s What Obama Can and Should do to Stop Telecom Immunity, ACLU's transition plan, and CDT's Reform of the National Security Surveillance Laws and Procedures all have more.
  
• With sections of the PATRIOT Act expiring at the end of the year unless extended, expect Congressional debate of wiretapping in the fall if not earlier. In March, a dozen Republican congressmen introduced leglislation to extend the clauses, and Senator Russ Feingold told one of our members that he's planning on introducing reform legislation in a few weeks if the Obama administration doesn't act first.
  

See the in-progress 2009 FISA Calender for an overview of the likely events of the year.

Get FISA Right's goals

What does it mean to "get FISA right"?, by Jim Burrows on the Get FISA Right blog, has some principles for changes we'd like to see. Our specific goals for 2009:

• Obama living up to his campaign promises: acting against immunity, respecting privacy and the rule of law
  
• Significant change in public opinion to the point where there's strong evidence that the vast majority of Americans (60%+) oppose continuing the "national surveillance state" approach to providing the illusion of security
  
• Congressional action: sunset PATRIOT Act secs 206 and 215, FISA reform undoing damage from 2008 FAA, begin drafting "repeal/reform" legislation.
  

2010 goal: repeal PATRIOT Act, replacing it with legislation that better protects civil liberties and national security

More details on challenges (and opportunities) for anti-FISA forces and Get FISA Right's strengths and challenges in the Strategy backgrounder.

Strategy summary

January - May lay groundwork (communications, reconnect with existing members, Ideas for Change and Ask the President competitions, resume services dialog with President Obama, reach out to potential allies, improve diversity ...)

During the "first 100 days": remain a group of Obama supporters and continue our conversation with him attempting to influence his initial executive actions. Key asks:

• stay immunity lawsuits until after the Inspectors' General report in July
• comply with FISA and other legislation (including the warrant requirements) and clarify that he will not assert "Article II" power
• defer bulk surveillance of Americans, even though it has been authorized by the FAA

May/June: decide on our longer-term organization (partisan or non-partisan? merge with an existing organization? etc.)

July-end of year: pressure Congress and Obama; with sections of the PATRIOT Act expiring at the end of the year, this is the most likely situation for legislative action.

Strategy details

January - May Prepare the groundwork during the first half of the year put sustainable communications into place -- see 2009 Communications channels for current thinking. test out during January and revise reconnect with members on MyBO. begin awareness work with videos/ads working with SaysMe.tv -- video and media release here work to ensure that a FISA-related idea is in the top 10 in the second round of the Ideas for Change competition. *Update*: we finished #5. Time to celebrate has more. make the wiki a valuable shared resource for anti-FISA activists in general, to improve information sharing and coordination. increase real-world focus by supporting in-person actions at the Inauguration (Ben Masel's Stop Government Spying,Spying, Jim Cook's pro-constitution rally) reach out to potential allies, e.g. DREAM Activists, Democrats.com, politicians, media

First 100 days

• Remain a partisan group of Obama supporters (Jon's posts here discuss why). *Update*: does the opportunity of partnering with a 501(c)3 in Ideas for Change advance this schedule?

• resume our conversation with Obama and ask him to follow through on his campaign promises. As a group of supporters who worked to elect him, we're in a unique position to continue our conversation with him. Key asks: *Update*: presented in-person to whitehouse.gov blogger Macon Phillips at a National Press Club event
  
• stay immunity lawsuits until after the Inspectors' General report in July (see What Obama Can and Should do to Stop Telecom Immunity)
• comply with FISA and other legislation (including the warrant requirements) and clarify that he will not assert "Article II" power
• defer bulk surveillance of Americans, even though it has been authorized by the FAA

Current assumption: while we'll support other activist campaigns who are putting pressure on Congress during this time-frame, we're most leveraged in direct interaction with Obama.

• continue to focus on wikis and social networks (Facebook, MySpace, and elsewhere in addition to MyBO) and to emphasize this as a key part of our framing -- and interactions with politicians and other activists.
  

• broaden outreach to become more inclusive
  
• reach out to youth activists, immigration organizations, milbloggers, libertarians and ask for their suggestions on how we might engage with their communities
• using the Ideas for Change competition to kickstart our MySpace presence
• create a presence on other social networks as well

May - July

Note: things are a lot sketchier from this point on; we'll need to reevaluate based on our successes and difficulties over the first few months of the year.

• decide on our organization for the rest of the year. Do we remain a separate entity or merge with an existing group? Do we remain partisan or move in a non-partisan direction? What's our governance structure?
• get decisions nailed down and new structures in place by June 26, our first birthday
• set strategy in place for the rest of the year
  

August - December

• broad awareness work (hopefully in conjunction with other organizations who actually have budgets!)
• continue interactions with Obama
  
• pressure Congress as part of PATRIOT Act debate
• draft model FISA/PATRIOT Act legislation to be introduced in 2010