Orwellian in name, the Patriot Act, has long been at the center of controversy over the extension of powers it gives the FBI and the CIA. Even it’s supporters admit that it reduces peacetime liberties but argue that it is the price we must pay to fight terrorists. One of the problems with any act such as the Patriot Act is once it is implemented the government is always reluctant to give up it’s additional powers regardless of whether or not the original threat that prompted the act still exists.

I was against the Patriot Act when it was passed and I am against extending the Patriot Act. The Act allows too much latitude of action by law enforcement agencies and abuses have plagued the Act since shortly after it was passed. Doing a Google search reveals more abuses than I have time to include here, but here are a few:

Patriot Act Abuses

The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.

The report, in classified and unclassified versions, remains closely held, but Washington officials who have seen it tell ABC News it documents “numerous lapses” and describe it as “scathing” and “not a pretty picture for the FBI.” SOURCE

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2003

Over the six-month period that ended in June, the Justice Department’s inspector general found 34 complaints of rights violations that appeared credible, reports The New York Times. Some of the charges have yet to be fully investigated. Not all the complaints concerned physical abuse.

The complaints concern the way the Justice Department has enforced the 2001 Patriot Act, a law passed in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks that granted wider powers to federal law enforcement officers to conduct surveillance and detain immigrants. SOURCE

The National Security Letter provision of the Patriot Act radically expanded the FBI’s authority to demand personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions and credit companies without prior court approval.

Through NSLs the FBI can compile vast dossiers about innocent people and obtain sensitive information such as the web sites a person visits, a list of e-mail addresses with which a person has corresponded, or even unmask the identity of a person who has posted anonymous speech on a political website. The provision also allows the FBI to forbid or “gag” anyone who receives an NSL from telling anyone about the record demand. Since the Patriot Act was authorized in 2001, further relaxing restrictions on the FBI’s use of the power, the number of NSLs issued has seen an astronomical increase. The Justice Department’s Inspector General has reported that between 2003 and 2006, the FBI issued nearly 200,000 NSLs. The inspector General has also found serious FBI abuses of the NSL power. SOURCE

During the Bush administration we found that the government was engaging in illegal wiretapping and surveillance on such groups as Quakers….yes, the Quakers:

October 12, 2006

The American Friends Service Committee Lawsuit Confirms Defense Department “Spying”
PHILADELPHIA, (OCTOBER 12)—Documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union confirm the Department of Defense (DOD) has been “spying” on peaceful protestors.

The documents reveal the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization committed to the principles of nonviolence, came under Pentagon surveillance on several occasions last year for organizing or supporting peaceful protest activity.
SOURCE

Where were all the patriots who claim to love freedom and liberty when the Patriot Act was shredding our civil liberties…..they were mostly on the Internet proclaiming how necessary the Patriot Act is to our security. It is for their silence over the Bush administration’s abuses of power that I find them hard to take seriously now when they claim they are the great patriots and keepers of our freedom.

Of course, when the Patriot Act was passed and argued the quote that was referred to time and time again by those who opposed the Patriot Act was Benjamin Franklin’s words: “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”

Those words hold true for me today as much as they did in 2001. I opposed the Patriot Act then and I oppose it now.  I don’t trust powers that can be kept secret and are easily abused to either party.

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer – 8 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday.

Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law’s authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called “lone wolf” terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.

The provision on business records was long criticized by rights groups as giving the government access to citizens’ library records, and a coalition of liberal and conservative groups complained that the Patriot Act gives the government too much authority to snoop into Americans’ private lives.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law. Back in May, President Obama said legal institutions must be updated to deal with the threat of terrorism, but in a way that preserves the rule of law and accountability.

[snip]

Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the administration is willing to consider stronger civil rights protections in the new law “provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important (provisions).”

[snip]

Michelle Richardson of the American Civil Liberties Unioncalled the administration’s position “a mixed bag,” and said that the group hopes the next version of the Patriot Act will have important safeguards on other issues, particularly the collecting of international communications, and a specific bar on surveillance of protected First Amendment activities like peaceful protests or religious assembly.

REST OF ARTICLE

(For more abuses of the Patriot Act see HERE)