News Conference:
Wednesday, October 16, 2002, 10:30 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO - The American Civil Liberties Union, including the ACLU affiliate of Northern California and other ACLU affiliates throughout the nation, will next week announce a multi-million dollar advertising campaign and a massive mobilization of its members and supporters in a new nationwide effort to safeguard the freedoms that Attorney General Ashcroft and the Bush administration have targeted since last year's terrorist attacks.

The campaign will be announced at news conferences in Washington DC and at ACLU affiliate offices across the country. At the San Francisco offices of the ACLU of Northern California, Nadine Strossen, President of the national ACLU and Dorothy Ehrlich, Executive Director of the ACLU-NC, will be joined by victims of government surveillance.

The 30-second advertisement will be screened at the news conference; copies on BETA or VHS are available for b-roll.