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Title: PATRIOT ACT 2: FBI SUBPOENAS WITHOUT A COURT; GOP Aides Say New Patriot Act Obliges Bush
Source:
Drudge / AP
URL Source: http://www.drudgereport.com/
Published: May 18, 2005
Author: Associated Press
Post Date: 2005-05-18 20:51:07 by Brian S
Keywords: SUBPOENAS, PATRIOT, WITHOUT
Views: 45
Comments: 11
WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury. Much of the debate in Congress has concerned possibly limiting some of the powers in the anti-terrorism law passed 45 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But the measure being written by Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, for quickly obtaining records, electronic data or other evidence in terrorism investigations, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters Wednesday. Recipients could challenge the subpoenas in court and the Bush administration would have to report to Congress twice a year exactly how it was using this investigatory power, the aides said. The administration has sought this power for two years, but so far been rebuffed by lawmakers. It is far from certain that Congress will give the administration everything it wants this year. Roberts' planned bill also would make it easier for prosecutors to use special court-approved warrants for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies in criminal cases, the committee aides said. Eight expiring sections of the law that deal with foreign intelligence investigations would become permanent, they said. So, too, would a provision that authorizes wiretapping of suspected terrorists who operate without clear ties to a particular terrorist network. The aides spokes on condition of anonymity because Roberts has yet to make public the bill's contents. Opponents of expanding the Patriot Act said Roberts' proposal would amount to an expansive wish list for the administration. "While we're fighting to bring provisions ... back into balance with the Bill of Rights, here we have the intelligence committee moving to give the government more power outside the judicial system to gain access to records of Americans," said former GOP Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia, a critic of the law. Lisa Graves, the American Civil Liberties Union's senior counsel for legislative strategy, said the new subpoena power would "be a dramatic expansion of secret search powers." Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other administration officials have been adamant that the expiring provisions become permanent, with few changes. They also have pushed for the administrative subpoena power, which they say prosecutors already are using in health care fraud and other criminal cases. Justice Department officials have been consulted on the legislation and offered technical advice, department spokesman Kevin Madden said. "The Department of Justice appreciates that the Senate Intelligence Committee has signaled their intention to support provisions that enhance law enforcement's ability to combat terrorism effectively," Madden said. Committee aides said the committee planned to meet in private when it considers the bill because the discussions would involve intelligence operations. Barr said he was distressed that the committee "would do something like this in secret." Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the panel's senior Democrat, has not said publicly whether he would support the entire bill that Roberts was working on or seek changes. ___ On the Net: Administration's Patriot Act Web site: http://www.lifeandliberty.gov American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
yeah, ol' dubya's gonna be the dictator yet!
http://www.counterpunch.org/ The Senate Intelligence Committee's Secret Session The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act Even Worse By DAVE LINDORFF In a stunning slap at the democratic legislative process, the Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), has suddenly and quietly scheduled a closed-door session for this Thursday to mark up its version of a renewed USA PATRIOT ACT, the frankenstein legacy of former Attorney General John Ashcroft and his then assistant Michael Chertoff (now secretary of Homeland Security). The controversial act, many provisions of which seriously undermine basic Constitutional rights and protections, was just being examined in hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee headed by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), where it came under heavy criticism from both right and left. Both the Intelligence and Judiciary committees have jurisdiction over the act, but the Judiciary committee, with its open hearings, was widely seen as having primacy. Critics of some of the act's provisions, such as the notorious library records provision, which allows federal agents, or local law enforcement authorities working for them, to inspect the patron or customer records of libraries, video stores and bookstores, without a warrant and without notification, or the sneak- and-peek provision, which lets federal agents spy and surveil on people without later notifying them, carry a "sunset provision," which means if they are not renewed this year, they would expire. The administration has been arguing for renewal or for making the provisions permanent, but a coalition of conservative and liberal groups calling itself Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, has expressed hopes of convincing a majority of the Judiciary Committees of both House and Senate to modify those and several other rights-threatening measures in the PATRIOT Act before sending the renewal legislation to the full Congress in June. This surprise move by the Intelligence Committee, which is packed with senators from both parties who have not been particularly friendly to civil libertarians, appears to be an end run by supporters of the White House. Says Lisa Graves, intelligence lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, "This is an effort by the administration to get everything they want. It is an outrage." Graves says the move suggests that the administration and its congressional backers fear that they could lose in the Judiciary Committee, and are hoping to present the bill they want as a fait accompli and then call anyone who tries to weaken it "soft on terror." "This is a radical bill," Graves says of the Intelligence Committee work-in- progress. She says her sources tell her that besides making the controversial sunset provisions of the PATRIOT Act permanent, the Intelligence Committee version of the revised act would greatly expand one of its most dangerous provisions, the administrative subpoena. "It would allow administrative subpoenas for virtually anything held by a third party, such as bank or phone or medical records, with only the merest unsubstantiated hint of a foreign connection." Equally troubling, she says, the Intelligence Committee version of the bill would strip out a current bar on using warrantless administrative subpoenas in cases that involved primarily protected First Amendment activities, such as legitimate political protest. "I guess now we'll have to see whether the people on the Judiciary Committee will have the political courage to stand up to this," says Graves. While the Intelligence Committee's plan for a closed-door mark-up of the bill is a clear affront to democracy and to the Bill of Rights, it is in keeping with the history of the PATRIOT Act, which was drawn up--reportedly at the direction of Chertoff, who was then in charge of terrorism issues at the Justice Department--in the weeks after the 9-11 attacks, and then passed by Congress with no committee hearings and virtually no discussion. Although no member of Congress even had time to read the mammoth 362-page bill, it passed in the Senate with only one dissenting vote--cast by Sen. Russ Feingold (D- Wisconsin)--and then passed in the House by a lopsided 357-66 margin. Over the intervening four and a half years, a dramatic grassroots movement against the PATRIOT Act has swept across the country, with some 383 communities so far, large and small, including some major cities and seven state governments, passing legislation that seeks to protect their residents from the act--for example by barring local or state law enforcement authorities from supporting unconstitutional federal agency requests for information or surveillance or by calling on state congressional delegations to vote to rescind the act. Given this broad cross-party popular opposition to the Act, it will be interesting to see how the full House and Senate vote on whatever PATRIOT Act renewal bill is ultimately presented out to them. Unlike the Intelligence Committee session this Thursday, their votes will be in public. Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His new book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Information about both books and other work by Lindorff can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net.
Not enough time left in his term but another, say 8-12 years of neocon majorities in Washington could "seal the deal". They are going to have to come up with some scheme to deal with "we pesky voters", however. The last ballot we cast may very well be registered by a "pull of the trigger"...
Brian, that's the ONLY one that will count.
LOL. Whew, for a minute there I thought this might be some sort of sweeping new dictatorial power for a Federal police agency. But people actaully get the right to challenge this in court, if they have the money that is and the time and don't want to piss off the Feds further. Sort of like our plea bargain system- don't plea and lose- go to jail for life. Don't allow the search and try to fight it and lose? Man, who knows? But- Bush and future Presidents will have to report to Congress twice a year! OH well, they are such tigers in standing up to the President on so many things, like spending bills, that I am sure they will hold his feet to the fire on this! It just warms me to know that our rubber stamp ceremonial fedgov goodie dispenser, otherwise known as Congress, will have "oversight" on this. Will these bi-annual hearings be open to the public or behind close doors? Oh- doesn't matter, they will do the right thing, being a "co-equal" branch of government and all. Man this is funny, not sad any more, just funny.
Is there anyway to find out if anti-Zionists are considered terrorists yet?
pathetic is what it is. the funny thing is, just when you start thinking that it couldn't possibly get any more absurd, it does. as tommy says, "you gotta be shitting me."
The FBI is being used as Gestapo for Bush, World Government Socialists to subjugate and enslave the American people. Republican world government socialist Orin Hatch set up the FBI global school in Budapest Hungary back in the late 1990s where FBI agents are trained by the KGB in KGB methods!
That is most likely being codified in the "secret session"...
Any way to find out if Critics of Bush, Bush bot and world government socialists are considered terrorists yet?
SurrrrprIIIIIse, surrrrrrprIIIIIse, said Gomer (dung) Pile. Why, I thought we weren't going to allow the terrorists a victory by changing our lifestyles. Didn't the lil dictator say something to that effect ? Now every draconian nazi scare tactic is being employed against Americans at every opportunity by the new standing army of HOMO-LAND GLADIATORS, granny gets searched at the airport, while some rag head turban wearing Osama yo Mamma boards the plane without incident. The border is wide open complete with federally funded drinking fountains, requiring civilian Americans to go there and show the BORDER PATROL that unfettered crossing into America by tuberculosis carrying illegal Mexicans "can" be stopped; internal check points and a national I.D. Card will soon be employed complete with RFID chips so that all of the good people can be monitored by Big Bro ... This is not a democrat vs. republicrat condition ... it is tyranny operated out of both parties, each acting as the good cop or bad cop alternatively in furtherance of the oppression. The people of this country would be better off and might even enjoy a little freedom if there were NO GOVERNMENT IN OUR WAY, ON OUR BACK or UP OUR COLLECTIVE ASSES. Bush and his crime syndicate are just the temporary management team doing the work of the INTERNATIONAL BANKERS and their bosses ... whomever those scum sucking, bottom feeding, satan worshipping, shit swallowing sons of bitches are !
#2. To: Brian S (#0)
#3. To: christine (#1)
yeah, ol' dubya's gonna be the dictator yet!
#4. To: Brian S (#3)
#5. To: christine (#1)
Recipients could challenge the subpoenas in court and the Bush administration would have to report to Congress twice a year exactly how it was using this investigatory power, the aides said.
#6. To: Brian S (#0)
would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, for quickly obtaining records, electronic data or other evidence in terrorism investigations, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters Wednesday.
#7. To: Burkeman1, TommyTheMadArtist (#5)
Man this is funny, not sad any more, just funny.
#8. To: christine, Arator, FormerLurker, Neil McIVer, TommyTheMadArtist, tom007, Uncle Bill, who knows what evil, Red Jones, robin, Zipporah, swarthyguy, honway, Sparker, Fred Mertz, MUDDOG, lodwick, continental op, itisa1mosttoolate, CWRWinger (#0)
#9. To: robin (#6)
Is there anyway to find out if anti-Zionists are considered terrorists yet?
#10. To: robin, Brian S (#6)
Is there anyway to find out if anti-Zionists are considered terrorists yet?
#11. To: Itisa1mosttoolate, all (#2)
This "surprise" move by the Intelligence Committee, which is packed with senators from both parties who have not been particularly friendly to civil libertarians, appears to be an end run by supporters of the White House.
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