Senators Renew Patriot Act Spy Powers

[The Straight Story]

Senators Renew Patriot Act Spy Powers

A deeply divided Senate committee on Thursday forwarded legislation to the full Senate that reauthorizes three expiring and constitutionally suspect provisions of the Patriot Act hastily adopted in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks.

The measures greatly expanded the government’s ability to spy on Americans in the name of national security.

Thursday’s 11-8 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee came as lawmakers struggled to beat a looming deadline. The three provisions expire at year’s end.

During more than two hours of sometimes heated debate among the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, some lawmakers accused one another of caving to intelligence officials who wanted to expand their powers while other senators said the renewal was necessary to protect against looming, and classified, terror threats.

But when the hearing was over, the committee approved measures that included allowing broad warrants to be issued by a secret court for any type of record, from financial records to medical records without the government having to declare the information sought is connected to a terror investigation or an agent of a foreign power.

A proposal requiring that the warrants focus on a terror investigation or agent of a foreign power was defeated last week. And a related proposal was rejected Thursday after many senators were privately briefed by intelligence officials who said adding constitutional protections for Americans could place them in harm’s way and jeopardize ongoing investigations.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/pariot-act-renewal/

[zorahopkins]

1. This Is Terrible!

OMG!

I cannot believe that something as terrible as this got even one Democratic vote.

I'm stunned.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Tell me again: The Democrats are on OUR side, right?

Right?

[cheapo90]

3. a

a

[951-Riverside]

7. Trying to inflate your post count so you can post topics?

:)

[G_j]

4. disturbing, Leahy voted to forward the measure to the Senate

<snip>

Lawmakers said they could not discuss the private briefing publicly because it was classified. “That’s the very nature of dealing with some of the laws dealing with the collection of highly classified material. It’s regrettable,” said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona, who approved the measure.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, said there was no evidence that adding limited privacy protections for Americans would hinder any investigation. Instead, he said, his colleagues were sanctioning “fishing expeditions.”

“I don’t buy it,” said the senator, who voted against sending the measure to the full Senate, where it meets an uncertain fate and must also be approved by the House.

No vote date for either body has been set.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and the committee’s chairman, said he wished “the American public could have seen” the classified briefing. Leahy voted to forward the measure to the Senate.

Members also renewed the so-called “roving wiretap” provision, allowing the FBI to obtain wiretaps by the secret court, known as the FISA court, without identifying the target or what method of communication is to be tapped. Finally, the committee renewed the so-called “lone-wolf” measure that allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of a person for whatever reason– even without showing that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a terrorist. The government has said it has never invoked that provision, but said it wanted to retain the authority to do so.

<snip>

[thunder rising]

5. What about us...the fucking population? This is where I go all "teabagger"

briefed by intelligence officials who said adding constitutional protections for Americans could place them in harm’s way and jeopardize ongoing investigations.

[951-Riverside]

6. Its cool...

Obama is President :sarcasm:

[Joe Fields]

8. Like Lewis Black said:

Both parties are a bowl of steaming shit, looking into the mirror.

[spanone]

9. government never relinquishes power...this gives them more power.

[BuyingThyme]

10. That's a very strange break-down:

Voting to send the package to the Senate floor were:

Benjamin Cardin, D-Maryland; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Dianne Feinstein, D-California; Al Franken, D-Minnesota; Edward Kaufman, D-Delaware; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin; Jon Kyl, R-Arizona; Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont; Charles Schumer, D-New York; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Maryland.

Voting against:

Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma; Richard Durbin, D-Illinois; Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin; Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina; Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; Orin Hatch, R-Utah; Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama; Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania.

[G_j]

11. thanks

I was looking for that.


very strange..

[Joe Fields]

13. I'm surprised at Franken. Did he make a deal to get his legislation passed?

[BuyingThyme]

15. Sometimes these guys just look at a bill and decide the full Senate should have a chance to vote.

[Joe Fields]

16. Just asking, not condemning. It looks a little suspiscious, though.

[MadHound]

12. Hmm, that dime's worth of difference

Is starting to look more and more like about six cents.

[Hubert Flottz]

14. "Change" your ass!

Yes we can't!

[MetaTrope]

17. Democrats today: Neocon Lapdogs, or War Crime Collaborators?

Starting to look like the latter...

[ProSense]

18. Feingold has a diary

posted here.

[branders seine]

19. Stalin is dead

Long live Stalin!

[indepat]

20. Are these senators saying piss on constitutional protections, piss on

the Constitution, piss on the Rule of Law, we're going to play like we are giving you a modicum of security for only a mountain of your liberty, all ye in the land of the free and home of the brave? What a freakin' mockery. ;)

[DCKit]

21. Please feel free to correct my recollection...

But I believe that only 3 of >750 such previous warrants were (by any stretch of the imagination) terror related.

The law is unconstitutional and is being used illegally - at the very least in very, very bad faith.