response/politics { Tim Walz responds to my email

Or why I voted for Walz, it was because of responses like the one below.

A few weeks back I sent a note to Tim Walz (along with probably many) asking for the cessation of torture and the closing of Guatanemo Bay and all the secret torture prisons the U.S., here is his response.

Dear [I choose to anonymous my name],

Thank you for contacting me about protecting civil liberties. As a 24 year veteran of the National Guard, I served to safeguard the personal freedoms of all Americans. You can count on me to stand up for them as your Congressman.

While we must be vigilant against terrorists and use all tools at our disposal, we must never cede our liberties to our government.

On the domestic front, I believe wiretapping and e-mail monitoring are appropriate only after the judicial branch has exercised its Constitutionally-mandated role and approved the action. Congress must ensure that the NSA and FBI follow the law when conducting investigations of U.S citizens and those suspected criminal activists.

Internationally, questions surrounding the treatment and interrogation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay have sunk the credibility of the United States to an all-time low. The President should move to close this facility immediately and the Justice Department must make it clear that torture is never acceptable. Moreover, the Justice Department and the CIA must abandon the practices of using secret prisons to detain suspects indefinitely and using extraordinary renditions to whisk suspects off to "torture-friendly" countries for interrogation.

You will also be happy to know that I have cosponsored H.R. 1678, the Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act of 2007. The legislation will fund domestic treatment centers for victims of torture and broadcast that America stands against all forms of torture. The legislation is pending consideration before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and I am hopeful it will be enacted into law soon.

Thank you again for sharing your views with me, and I look forward to hearing from you again in the future. For more information about my activities representing southern Minnesota in Congress, please visit http://walz.house.gov and sign up for my e-newsletter.



Sincerely,


Tim Walz
Member of Congress