NY Times 9/20: A Looming Battle Over the Patriot Act

[steven johnson]

This looks like the beginning of a series of fights on the Patriot Act, the camel's nose under the tent for further illegal surveillance techniques.

s Congress prepares to consider extending crucial provisions of the USA Patriot Act, civil liberties groups and some Democratic lawmakers are gearing up to press for sweeping changes to surveillance laws.

But in general, civil libertarians and some Democrats have called for changes that would require stronger evidence of meaningful links between a terrorism suspect and the person whom investigators are targeting.
In the same way, some are proposing to use any Patriot Act extension bill to tighten when the F.B.I. may use "national security letters" - administrative subpoenas that allow counterterrorism agents to seize business records without obtaining permission from a judge. Agents use the device tens of thousands of times each year.

The Patriot Act section that expanded the F.B.I.'s power to issue those letters is not expiring, but they have become particularly controversial because the Justice Department's inspector general issued two reports finding that F.B.I. agents frequently misused the device to obtain bank, credit card and telephone records.

Finally, some civil libertarians want lawmakers to revisit a June 2008 law in which Congress granted immunity from civil lawsuits to telecommunications companies that assisted President George W. Bush's program of surveillance without warrants, and that adjusted federal statutes to bring them into alignment with a form of that program.



A Looming Battle Over the Patriot Act

[obliviously]

1. Do we want security or do we want freedom?

Can we have both?