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<div><font color="#000080"><a href="http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread522029/pg1">http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread522029/pg1</a><font face="Arial" size="2"> </font></font></div>
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<div><font color="#000080" face="Arial" size="2"><strong>ARTICLE:</strong> </font><a href="http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2694"><strong><font face="Arial">http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2694</font></strong></a><font color="#000080" face="Arial"><strong> </strong></font></div>
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<font face="Arial"><strong><span class="ecxmarron_titulo_med">POLITICS-US</span>:<br><span class="ecxmarron_titulo_big">Obama Quietly Backs Patriot Act
Provisions</span><br><span class="ecxmarron">William Fisher
</span></strong></font><span class="ecxtexto1"><br><font face="Arial"><strong>NEW YORK, 23 Nov (IPS) - With the health care
debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually
unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly
supporting renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA
Patriot Act that civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms.
<br><br>And it is reportedly doing so over the objections of some
prominent Democrats.<br><br>When a panicky Congress passed the act
45 days after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001, three
contentious parts of the law were scheduled to expire at the end of
next month, and opponents of these sections have been pushing
Congress to substitute new provisions with substantially
strengthened civil liberties protections.<br><br>But with the
apparent approval of the Obama White House and a number of
Republicans – and over the objections of liberal Senate Democrats
including Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Dick Durbin of Illinois –
the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to extend the three
provisions with only minor changes.<br><br>Those provisions would
leave unaltered the power of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) to seize records and to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mail in
the course of counterterrorism investigations.<br><br>The parts of
the act due to expire on Dec. 31 deal with:<br><br>National Security
Letters (NSLs)<br><br>The FBI uses NSLs to compel Internet service
providers, libraries, banks, and credit reporting companies to turn
over sensitive information about their customers and patrons. Using
this data, the government can compile vast dossiers about innocent
people. <br><br>The 'Material Support' Statute<br><br>This provision
criminalises providing "material support" to terrorists, defined as
providing any tangible or intangible good, service or advice to a
terrorist or designated group. As amended by the Patriot Act and
other laws since Sep. 11, this section criminalises a wide array of
activities, regardless of whether they actually or intentionally
further terrorist goals or organisations. <br><br>FISA Amendments
Act of 2008<br><br>This past summer, Congress passed a law that
permits the government to conduct warrantless and suspicion-less
dragnet collection of U.S. residents' international telephone calls
and e-mails. <br><br>Asked by IPS why committee chairman Senator
Patrick Leahy of Vermont and other Democrats chose to make only
minor changes, Chip Pitts, president of the Bill of Rights Defence
Committee, referred to "the secret and hypocritical lobbying by the
Obama administration against reforms – while publicly stating
receptiveness to them." White House pressure, he speculated, "was
undoubtedly a huge if lamentable factor".<br><br>He added that some
committee members were cautious because of the recent arrests of
Najibullah Zazi and others. <br><br>Zazi , a citizen of Afghanistan
and a legal U.S. resident, was arrested in September as part of a
group accused of planning to carry out acts of terrorism against the
U.S. Zazi is said by the FBI to have attended courses and received
instruction on weapons and explosives at an al Qaeda training camp
in Pakistan.<br><br>Leahy acknowledged that, in light of these
incidents, "This is no time to weaken or undermine the tools that
law enforcement relies on to protect America." <br><br>Pitts told
IPS, "Short-term and political considerations driven by dramatic
events once again dramatically affected the need for a more sensible
long-term, reasoned, rule-of-law approach."<br><br>"In the eight
years since passage of the original Patriot Act, it's become clear
that the escalating political competition to appear tough on terror
- and avoid being accused of being "soft on terror" - brings
perceived electoral benefits with few costs, with vital but fragile
civil liberties being easily sacrificed," he added.<br><br>In
contrast to the Senate, the House of Representatives Judiciary
Committee approved a version of the legislation containing several
significant reforms. In a 16-10 party-line vote, the committee's
version curbs some of the government's controversial surveillance
powers. <br><br>The Patriot Act, passed by a landslide after the
9/11 terrorist attacks to provide law enforcement and intelligence
agencies additional powers to thwart terrorist activities, was
reauthorised in 2005. <br><br>The legislation has been criticised by
many from across the ideological spectrum as a threat to civil
liberties, privacy and democratic traditions. Sections of the
original act have been ruled unconstitutional, with certain
provisions violating protected rights. <br><br>Judiciary Chair John
Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said the goal of the new legislation
was to "craft a law that preserves both our national security and
our national values".<br><br>The proposed new legislation would
permit the so-called "lone wolf" provision to sunset. This authority
removed the requirement that an individual needed to be an agent of
a foreign power to be placed under surveillance by intelligence
officials and permitted surveillance of individuals with a much
lower evidentiary threshold than allowed under criminal surveillance
procedures.<br><br>It was intended to allow the surveillance of
individuals believed to be doing the bidding of foreign governments
or terrorist organisations, even when the evidence of that
connection was lacking. <br><br>The Justice Department maintains
that the "lone wolf" authority is necessary, even though there is no
evidence that it has been used. Its opponents believe that existing
authorities are sufficient to achieve the goals of the lone wolf
provision while more effectively protecting the rights of innocent
citizens.<br><br>The proposed new House legislation would also
restrict the use of national security letters. According to a
Congressional Research Service report, "National security letters
(NSL) are roughly comparable to administrative subpoenas.
Intelligence agencies issue them for intelligence gathering purposes
to telephone companies, Internet service providers, consumer credit
reporting agencies, banks, and other financial institutions,
directing the recipients to turn over certain customer records and
similar information."<br><br>Under current law, intelligence
agencies have few restrictions on the use of NSLs, and in numerous
cases, have abused the authority. An FBI inspector general report in
2007 "found that the FBI used NSLs in violation of applicable NSL
statutes, Attorney General Guidelines, and internal FBI policies".
The reform provisions seek to create greater judicial scrutiny of
NSL use.<br><br>The bill approved in the Senate contains much more
modest reforms. It would retain the lone wolf provision, and is, in
general, much more in line with the wishes of the administration.
Should both bills pass and go into conference to be reconciled, it
is unclear which approach would prevail.<br><br>House and Senate
versions still need to be voted on by each body separately and then
reconciled into a single bill to send to the president for
signature.<br><br>Pitts told IPS, "President Obama's flip-flop on
Patriot Act issues does as much damage as did his flip-flop on the
FISA Amendments Act and telecom immunity last year. But it's
imperative that we fight, while we still can, to comprehensively
reinsert requirements for fact-based, individualised suspicion,
checks and balances, and meaningful judicial review prior to
government intrusions." <br><br>In a report on the Patriot Act, the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said, "More than seven years
after its implementation there is little evidence that the Patriot
Act has been effective in making America more secure from
terrorists. However, there are many unfortunate examples that the
government abused these authorities in ways that both violate the
rights of innocent people and squander precious security
resources."<br><br></strong></font>(END/2009) </span><br><BR>
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<div align="left"><font color="#000080" face="Arial" size="2">REFERENCE: <a href="http://domino.ips.org/ips/eng.NSF/vwWEBMainView?SearchView&Query=%28William+Fisher%29++and+Y.2009x+and+M.11x&SearchMax=100&SearchOrder=3">http://domino.ips.org/ips/eng.NSF/vwWEBMainView?SearchView&Query=%28William+Fisher%29++and+Y%2E2009x+and+M%2E11x&SearchMax=100&SearchOrder=3</a></font></div></td></tr></tbody></table> </td></tr></tbody></table></div>
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