Democrats Fault Plan for F.B.I.

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, May 19 - Several Democrats voiced strong objections on Thursday to a plan by the Bush administration and Republican leaders for expanding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's counterterrorism powers and said they would fight to have the issue fully debated in public rather than behind closed doors in the Senate.

"The F.B.I. already has the power to get what they need in investigations," Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who sits on the Intelligence Committee, said in an interview. "I'm unwilling to give the F.B.I. unfettered authority to conduct investigations and take away the last vestige of accountability, which is essentially what they are seeking here."

A proposal advocated by the Bush administration and Republican leaders on the Senate Intelligence Committee would allow the F.B.I. to demand records from businesses and other institutions in intelligence investigations without getting an order from a judge.
...
But Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, who sits on the Judiciary Committee - which is also reviewing the extension of the government's antiterror powers - said, "The Senate should not begin its consideration of the Patriot Act with a secret review, of a secret bill, concerning a law that often operates in secret." That debate, he said, should take place "in the light of day."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/politics/20terror.html

[dweller]

1. more info here from AP

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050519/ap_on_go_co/patriot_act_1

"But the measure being written by Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, for quickly obtaining records, electronic data or other evidence in terrorism investigations, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters Wednesday."


power to issue subpeonas? unfuckingbelievable.

dp