Left and Right Join Hands to Protest NSA Surveillance

An amalgam of 86 liberal and conservative groups and several Internet companies sent a letter to Congress Tuesday urging it to halt the National Security Agency's blanket surveillance programs.

The conservative organizations include FreedomWorks and TechFreedom. The liberal entities include the American Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace. The companies include reddit, Mozilla, and 4Chan.

"This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy," the letter states.

"This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens' right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that protect their right to privacy."

Along with halting the surveillance programs immediately, the letter's signees want Congress to:

• Reform the Patriot Act "to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law
• "Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying"
• "Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance."