Bush Expands Patriot Act by Stealth, Without Hearings

News and Opinion for Democrats Against Bush -- Part II

Bush Expands Patriot Act by Stealth, Without Hearings

"President Bush and Ashcroft are expanding Patriot I with piecemeal legislation and executive orders. For instance, last week the House approved a provision in the 2004 Intelligence Authorization bill that will permit the FBI to demand records from a number of businesses, without the approval of a judge or grand jury, if the agency feels the records are relevant to a terrorism investigation."

--John Anderson, the Huntsville Times

For legislation, see article on left; for executive orders, see article on right.

The Huntsville Times

Extra caution greets expansion of powers

By JOHN ANDERSON
Times Staff Writer

'Patriot II' on hold, but other bills may serve same end

The complete article is currently (4/5/04) available on the Huntsville Times portion of al.com-- http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/106958253493240.xml [found through a Google search by article title, via a link on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee website. http://www.bordc.org/archives-Nov2003 ]

Congress has reacted much more cautiously to Attorney General John Ashcroft's reported crafting of a "Patriot II'' act than it did to the original law, which rode a bipartisan wave to passage soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. ...

... Ashcroft has yet to unveil "Patriot II,'' perhaps because the rally-round-the-flag emotion that gave the first act its name seems to have ebbed. More than 200 U.S. cities and towns have passed resolutions opposing the Patriot Act, decrying what they call the federal government's excessive reach into the lives of ordinary citizens, according to a list compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Congressional Quarterly, a weekly publication that monitors Capitol Hill, reported in September that several influential congressional Republicans weren't enthusiastic about giving even more powers to federal prosecutors. ...

So President Bush and Ashcroft are expanding Patriot I with piecemeal legislation and executive orders. For instance, last week the House approved a provision in the 2004 Intelligence Authorization bill that will permit the FBI to demand records from a number of businesses, without the approval of a judge or grand jury, if the agency feels the records are relevant to a terrorism investigation. Previously, only financial institutions were obliged to turn over such records to the FBI. Under the Intelligence Authorization bill provision, securities dealers, currency exchanges, travel agents, car dealers, post offices, casinos and pawnbrokers would face the same possibility.

Despite the approval of that measure by the House - it passed 263-163 with some conservative Republicans voting no - some in Congress remain concerned that the war on terrorism may be stretching the nation's traditional concepts of civil liberties. ...

ACLU Massachusetts

THE USA PATRIOT ACT:
A CIVIL LIBERTIES BRIEFING

Read the complete article at-- http://www.aclu-mass.org/legal/USApatriotact.html

Excerpt--

[Executive orders expanding the Patriot Act]

... * An executive order [was] signed by President Bush on November 13th to establish military tribunals under the Department of Defense to try suspected terrorists. These tribunals would conduct secret trials, and would be able to impose the death penalty. The accused could be convicted by two-thirds of the members of the military commission present at the time of the vote, with a final decision on the sentence being taken by the President or Secretary of Defense.

Other executive actions listed in this article--

* A Justice Department ruling on October 31st permitting the government to monitor communications between federal detainees and their lawyers if this is seen as "reasonably necessary" to deter acts of terrorism.

    * A Justice Department list of 5,000 foreign men wanted for questioning not because of any evidence of wrongdoing, but because they fit a profile.

    * An executive order issued by President Bush on November 1st that ends more than 30 years of increasing openness in government by putting off limits the Presidential records of the Reagan, Clinton and two Bush Administrations and future Presidencies unless a "need to know" request is filed and permission is given by the former and current President.

    * The November 7th rejection by the FBI of a Freedom of Information Request concerning the more than a thousand detainees being held since September 11th. The Justice Department has also delayed giving Members of Congress information about the detainees.
_____________________________________________________

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.