Records-search plan alarms civil-liberties groups By Alan Elsner 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. civil-liberties groups said on Monday they were alarmed at new provisions to be considered in Congress this week to strengthen the government's ability to seize private records without judicial review.
Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Open Society Institute and the Center for Democracy and Technology said in a telephone conference call the new provisions to the USA Patriot Act would allow the FBI to secretly demand medical, tax, gun-purchase, travel and other records without approval from a judge.
The act was passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and 16 of its provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews them.
The Senate intelligence committee is scheduled to hold a closed session on Thursday to begin considering the renewal legislation, the first step toward a reauthorization vote sought by the Bush administration. The timetable could be disrupted by the current Senate showdown over judicial appointments.
Jim Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the changes being considered to the original law include far-reaching provisions that would curtail civil liberties.
"This bill includes ideas long sought, and rejected ... The idea that a FBI official could issue a piece of paper saying, 'Give me all your records' with no judicial approval, no prosecutorial review, no checks and balances," he said.
Under this provision, the FBI would be able to issue administrative subpoenas to seize such records without review by a judge or grand jury, as long as they said they were pursuing either a foreign-intelligence or terrorism investigation.
The changes are being pushed by the committee's chairman, Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), who has said the FBI needs to have its hands untied to fully fight terrorism.
Sarah Little, a spokeswoman for Roberts, said the FBI already had similar subpoena powers when it came to ordinary criminal cases. "The FBI and the Justice Department have requested the same kind of tools for terrorism cases," she said.
In a statement last month, Roberts said U.S. intelligence services needed flexibility to confront national security threats. He said the Sept. 11 hijackers had conducted numerous transactions while planning their attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"The records of these transactions could have been useful to the intelligence community before the attacks. Records from flight school, cell phone companies, rental car dealers or Internet service providers might have revealed crucial information," he said.
Even if they pass the committee, the outlook for the new provisions remain cloudy, since the Senate Judiciary Committee also has jurisdiction over the bill, while the House of Representatives is drawing up its own legislation.