The Free View-- weblog of a presidential candidate: Police State Rising

June 18, 2003

Police State Rising

(Uniting and strengthening America by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism) =

Patriot Act of 2001 Casts Wide Net
By Frank J. Murray
The Washington Times

Monday 16 June 2003

Long-sought details have begun to emerge from the Justice Department on how anti-terrorist provisions of the USA Patriot Act were applied in nonterror investigations, just as battle lines are being drawn on proposed new powers in a Patriot Act II.

Overall, the policy now allows evidence to be used for prosecuting common criminals even when obtained under extraordinary anti-terrorism powers and information-sharing between intelligence agencies and the FBI.

"We would use whatever tools are available to us, within reason, to prosecute violations of any law," Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said in the wake of his department's massive report to Congress describing how the USA Patriot Act is being implemented.

The information was a response to doubts, not from outspoken civil liberties groups, but from Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and the House Judiciary Committee chairman who publicly pushed for its speedy 337-79 House passage.

"We had something to do with encouraging Chairman Sensenbrenner to express our concerns," said Timothy Edgar, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel. The ACLU spearheaded opposition to sections that could let the government obtain vast amounts of information that infringe on constitutional rights.

"It's clear that the problems of 9/11 were the result of not analyzing information we had already collected. Creating more hay to search through the haystack is not an effective way to find the needle," Mr. Edgar said in an interview.

Full Article...

(Uniting and Strengthening America) + (Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) =

Patriot Act Use Expands
By Dan Eggen
The Washington Post

Wednesday 21 May 2003

Laws Invoked Against Crimes Unrelated to Terror, Report Says

The Justice Department has used many of the anti-terrorism powers granted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to pursue defendants for crimes unrelated to terrorism, including drug violations, credit card fraud and bank theft, according to a government accounting released yesterday.

In a 60-page report to the House Judiciary Committee, Justice officials also confirmed for the first time that nearly 50 defendants were secretly detained as material witnesses in connection with the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. The government has not previously characterized how many defendants had been held.

The report, issued in response to questions from House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) and ranking Democrat John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), provides new details about the federal government's domestic war on terrorism, which has largely been conducted in secret and has prompted complaints from civil liberties advocates and Muslim groups.

Full Article...

USA-PATRIOT Act =

Security and Liberty in Balance
The Chicago Tribune | Editorial

Monday 09 June 2003

In his testimony Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft displayed poor timing and tone-deafness to rising concerns about whether the delicate balance between national security and liberty is tipping in the wrong direction.

Three days earlier, Ashcroft's own inspector general had released a 239-page report highly critical of the Justice Department for overreaching in the handling of hundreds of immigrants who were detained for weeks and months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Ashcroft's response: He's asking for broader powers.

Full article...

Posted by Lance Brown at June 18, 2003 10:23 PM | TrackBack

Comments