For those of you who think the Patriot Act is such a good thing. The following is an excerpt from a research paper I just completed.
The “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act” (USA Patriot Act) is credited with uniting elements of local and federal law enforcement, the military, and international intelligence agencies. But it has also empowering them with incredibly unrestrained usage of surveillance, search warrant, and detainment capabilities that was previously kept in check by the courts to ensure that civil rights were preserved. Such an overwhelming grant of legal power has been viewed by many as a shredding of the constitution and a set back to the times when the federal government was illegally spying on over 10,000 people in the 1960’s and early 1970’s.
How the Patriot Act got passed without serious debate or scrutiny is no mystery. When the Act was introduced to congress, Attorney General John Aschcroft gave them one week to pass the bill with out changes. Although there where some changes made by the Senate Judiciary Committee, those changes where striped out under threat by the Attorney General who warned that other terrorist attacks may be forth coming and that Congress would be to blame if they held up the bill any longer. The Act was signed into law three weeks later, on October 26, 2001, without any debate from the House or the Senate.
Interesting thing is that some of the provisions in the Act where parts of previous attempts from the Attorney General to broaden prosecutorial powers. On those previous occasions where these attempts where made, either the House or the Senate struck them down. The bills being proposed at those times where usually referred to as being too broad of a power to be handed over to the judicial branch and were susceptible to abuse of civil rights. A lot of the changes made through the Patriot Act deal with surveillance and search and seizure powers and where the same ones previously struck down.
Under surveillance there have been a lot of changes. Section 216 deals with the restrictions on the use of pen registers and trap-and-trace devices, which have been eased considerably. This allows the government to intercept numbers dialed on a phone line. It also allows them to register the phone numbers of incoming calls, like caller Id. Previous applications of these tools where normally associated only to phones and phone lines but now has been adapted to cover computers through Internet service provider (ISP).
This now means that they can legally use “Carnivore” which was recently suspended (2000, Reno) pending fair use guidelines. The reason for the suspension was because Carnivore did not just listen in on one computer connected to an ISP it listened to all the computers on that ISP’s service because there is no way to narrow the scope of the software to just one user. This means that data was being collected on everyone that was subscribed to the Internet via that host ISP. Previously the government was obligated to inform the public of wiretaps, but not any more.
Further more, authorization for such wiretaps was usually required to be given by local courts only within the geographic jurisdiction of the issuing court. But new provisions under the Patriot Act expands jurisdiction of a court to anywhere in the United States, thus removing local authority and limiting checks and balances (sections 216 and 220).
These new search procedures are not limited to just wire/electronic surveillance but also expands to documents and any other “tangible things” (sec 156). Previously authorities had to specifically name the documents or objects they where looking for but now have a blanket authorization to anything that may provide useful information, and no specific crime has to be mentioned just a ”possible link” to a terrorist threat has to be mentioned. Not only is the scope widened on the individuals but also includes any businesses that are suspect to providing services to a suspected individual or organization. The serving law agency has no obligation to inform the business who or what they are looking for and the business can not inform it clients that their personal information has been compromised and collected by the government or local law enforcement.
There is also a section (206), which allows for the monitoring and seizure of records at public libraries. This is an expansion on a previous law that initially forced the government to specifically target an individual through such things as cell phone use. It now expands to usage of library computers used by suspects to brows the Internet and records of what books where being checked out. And again, this is not limited to an individual’s records but can include all patrons of that library in order to keep the identification of the suspect secret.
Section 213 deals with search warrants, it eliminates the requirements buy law enforcement agencies to present a notice of search and that such a notice need only be presented within a reasonable amount of time after the search has been performed. This ultimately means that the government can perform what is called a “sneak and peak” search. Through such a search the police or federal agents can search a suspect’s home, office, car or anything associated to the suspect secretly without the person present or given notification. If they find any evidence that needs to be secured, they can take it and only then do they have to provide notice of the search at all to the individual, again within a “reasonable amount” of time.
Who can be labeled as a terrorist and what can be done when such a designation is defined? Section 111 designates international terrorists as foreign powers. This is important because the detainees at Guantanimo Bay, Cuba, are designated as unlawful combatants of a “foreign power” and because of such a designation they can be detained indefinitely and tried under military court with out civil rights.
This definition is further expanded upon by being able to designate operatives in the United States as terrorists and subsequently as operatives of a “foreign power”. Now take into consideration that the government already, through the Patriot Act, has a vague authority to perform search and surveillance on suspects just by merely associating them to an on going terrorist investigation. Now take it one step further, through that association of an on going investigation they can now arrest the individual and subsequently deny them their civil rights by designating them as operatives of a “foreign power”. You now have no rights to due process.
These are just some examples of what the Patriot Act has changed to our civil rights. As a result of these changes, most organizations such as banks, hospitals, doctor’s offices, Internet service providers, and libraries have to provide notice that your records are susceptible to seizure with out notice and that the business organization can not inform you about it if such an event where to take place. Doctor patient privilege no more.
Now there is one part of the Patriot Act that is nice and that it is not permanent. Through a Sunset Provision, many features of the Act will expire on December 31, 2005. This means that if there is no successful attempt to extend the act as a whole or make parts of it permanent, then the Patriot Act itself will expire. But, unfortunately, some of the provisions in the Patriot Act were made permanent upon signature and most of those provisions are the ones just covered.
Sources:
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/
Christian Scientist: Opinion
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0502/p11s01-coop.html
Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveilla..._analysis.html
Patriot Act
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html
Patriot Act II Draft
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Terror...iot2draft.html
Truth Out
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02A.JVB.Patriot.htm
Patriot Act – Edited for clear reading
http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RS21203.pdf
Any of you out there who thinks this is a good thing needs to have your head examined.
AL
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