Patriot Act Changes to Be Proposed (by Justice Dept)

[Rose Siding]

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales will propose some "technical modifications" to the controversial USA Patriot Act today in an effort to address the concerns of critics and ensure that the anti-terrorism legislation is renewed by Congress later this year, according to a Justice Department official.

In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales will support changes in the law concerning secret warrants for financial documents, library data and other business records, according to the Justice official. The changes would clearly limit the use of such warrants to national security investigations and would allow targets to mount legal challenges to the search, the official said.

The proposal marks a significant shift for the Justice Department, which under Attorney General John D. Ashcroft had refused to entertain proposed changes to the legislation. It also marks an acknowledgment of the growing clout of critics of the law, who come from both the political left and right, and have persuaded scores of communities around the country to pass resolutions condemning the act.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26235-2005Apr4.html

[mattclearing]

1. God help us all.

This is the guy that reinterpreted the 1976 Presidential Records Act to give Bush authority to withold his Dad's Iran/Contra files.

Any changes he makes will likely be flagrant and unpleasant.

[girl gone mad]

2. It sounds more like..

they are trying to put band-aids on the wound, hoping that will keep Congress from amputating.

[mattclearing]

4. Nah.

I guarantee he is sneaking new stuff in, not curtailing it.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. Of COURSE he is!!! These guys NEVER do anything to decrease their power

What he is talking about is the sugar coating to hide the poison inside. Count on it!! This bill MUST BE READ COMPLETELY before any vote is taken.

[DemBeans]

3. meaning, of course, nothing changes

They can (and do) call anything "national security". And with this closed and secretive government, we'd have no idea exactly what constitutes "national security". I'm NOT reassured.

[madeline_con]

5. Yeh, right

>>>"The changes would clearly limit the use of such warrants to national security investigations..."<<<

Which is the all encompassing excuse for anything they want to do to anyone they want to do it to. SSDD. :puke:

[applegrove]

6. Thank god for Arar. Blew the lid of the whole thing. This is why we

need separate governments. Too much power is in too few hands right now and the cabal was capable of anything.

I think all the talk of war crimes trials may work in the end. Nobody wants to be hounded when they retire.As always, the age old question remains... what do you do with strong men like Rumsfield & Mugabe. They will never retire if they think they will go to jail or get sued.

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. Advice to Congress: READ THE FINE PRINT THIS TIME

Of couse they will loudly advertise something that would be noncontroversial, but there is no doubt that they will be planning to slip in something BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL in buried clauses that they are counting on no one reading in time. Then they will use the hijacked rules of procedure to force the vote through before anyone even knows what is there.

[DulceDecorum]

9. Hey there, Georgie Boy

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

[Moderator]

10. kick to combine

[UpInArms]

11. Gonzales ready to deal on Patriot Act fixes

Attorney general tells senators he's willing to work on revisions

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7393814/

WASHINGTON - The most significant news to emerge from Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the USA Patriot Act was that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is willing to negotiate with members of Congress on revising the law.

While Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller urged the committee to retain the 15 sections of the law that expire at the end of this year, the attorney general struck a more conciliatory tone than did former attorney general John Ashcroft in his confrontations with the committee.

<snip>

Democrats on the committee said they were encouraged that Gonzales indicated he’d be willing to negotiate with Congress on revising Section 215 of the law to allow individuals or firms that are served with secret warrants under of the law to challenge those warrants in court.

<snip>

Sen. Russ Feingold, D–Wis., the only member of the Senate to vote against the law in 2001, said after leaving the hearing that “the attorney general has finally admitted that there are problems with the way the USA Patriot Act was written. In particular Section 215, which has to do with business records, including library records.”

...more...

[shance]

12. "Fixes" is bullshit. It is an illegal, unconstitutional piece of

*legislation*.

I'm sure Republicans will be overjoyed to 'fix' this illegal act.

OVERTUNE AND OVERRULE THE FASCIST PATRIOT ACT.

[leftofcool]

13. Fixes?????????? What? Anal cavity searches? eom