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New York Times
September 14, 2003
DOMESTIC SECURITY
Bush Seeks to Expand Access to Private Data
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
The complete article may
be purchased online from the New York Times archives at-- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D10FE345F0C778DDDA00894DB404482
Quotes--
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 ・For months, President Bush's advisers have assured a
skittish public that law-abiding Americans have no reason to fear the long reach of the antiterrorism law known as the Patriot
Act because its most intrusive measures would require a judge's sign-off.
But in a plan announced this week to expand counterterrorism powers, President Bush
adopted a very different tack. In a three-point presidential plan that critics are already dubbing Patriot Act II, Mr.
Bush is seeking broad new authority to allow federal agents ・without the approval of a judge or even a federal prosecutor
・to demand private records and compel testimony. ...
Civil rights lawyers, defense
advocates and some former prosecutors say they see no need to broaden the Justice Department's powers so markedly. Under current
law, they say, terrorism investigators can typically get a subpoena in a matter of hours or minutes by going through a judge
or a grand jury.
"The fundamental issue here," Nicholas M. Gess, a former federal prosecutor and a
senior aide to the former attorney general Janet Reno, said, "is that at a time of such concern over civil liberties, there's
good reason to have a judge looking over the government's shoulder." ...
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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New York Times
September 22, 2003
Patriot Act, Part II
The complete article may be purchased online from the New York Times archives
at-- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20D1FFB355E0C718EDDA00894DB404482
Excerpt--
... President Bush spoke out last week in favor of a three-point plan for expanding the law.
Patriot Act II would give the government broad powers to seize documents and force testimony without a court order, expand
use of the death penalty and make it harder to be released on bail. None of these tools are necessary to fight terrorism,
and each threatens to infringe on the civil liberties of Americans.
The most troubling part of the new plan is the call for expanding government access to private data, allowing
federal agents to issue subpoenas for private medical, financial and other records, without a court order. ...
The two other parts of the plan are equally misguided. The
new death penalty provision is not needed: antiterrorism laws already provide for capital punishment. And it is worded so
vaguely that it could be used against people with no ties to international terrorism, including domestic political protesters...
The administration is acting as if it does not have the legal powers it needs to fight terrorism, when it
does. The drive to roll back civil liberties is a threat to freedom and a distraction. The administration would better use
its energy on more effective law enforcement strategies to keep us safe.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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