Feeling safer? Rein in the Patriot Act

[struggle4progress]

Originally published Tuesday, July 13, 2004
EDITORIAL

Members of the House of Representatives missed a key opportunity to reign in portions of the Patriot Act last Thursday when they failed to pass a resolution that would have made it more difficult for the government to snoop into the reading habits of everyday citizens.

The bill failed by a 210-210 tie. That failed legislation was designed to repeal portions of the controversial USA Patriot Act that allow federal investigators to obtain a citizen's library and bookstore records without using standard search warrants or grand jury subpoenas. Supporters of the bill ranged from Vermont socialist Bernie Sanders to the very conservative Republican Butch Otter of Idaho. Congressmen such as Otter and Sanders, along with thousands of average citizens around the nation, are concerned that the Patriot Act is treading on the Bill of Rights. Fears of an intrusive government that could invade the privacy of Americans are among the issues that compelled this nation's Founding Fathers to pen the Bill of Rights -- and today's debate over the Patriot Act.
<snip>

Federal investigators certainly need maneuvering room for their investigations of terrorists. Yet caving in to short-term fears by relinquishing civil rights will eventually destroy the long-term civil liberties that have made the United States unique among nations. Terror or no terror, the more power governments have, the more abusive they eventually can become.

Portions of the Patriot Act should be repealed or revised so they do not allow governments to invade the privacy of citizens and curtail other basic civil liberties. Even if today's U.S. government was perfect and entirely composed of honest people who scrupulously adhered to the Bill of Rights, who is to tell what sort of people will assume powerful positions in the future?
<snip>

http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20040713/opinion/832001.html

The headline may be better than the editorial

[Ranok]

1. The Patriot Act II Reviewed by CPC/CA

This article is from the CPC website www.cpc-net.org and www.cyberarmy.net

The USA Patriot Act II
(Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003)



Table of Contents

1. What is the USA Patriot Act?
2. What is the
USA Patriot Act II?
*Section 101
*Section 102
*Section 103
*Section
106
*Section 109
*Section 110
*Section 111
*Section 122
*Section
123
*Section 126
*Section 127
*Section 128
*Section 129
*Section
201
*Section 202
*Section 205
*Section 301 + 306
*Section 303
*Section
311
*Section 313
*Section 321
*Section 322
*Section 402
*Section
403
*Section 404
*Section 408
*Section 410
*Section 411
*Section
421
*Section 427
*Section 501
3. Who wrote the USA Patriot Acts and
why?
4. How would the Patriot Act II affect us?
5. What can we do about
it?



1. What is the USA Patriot Act?

The Uniting and Strengthening
America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct
Terrorism (U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T.) Act, submitted to Congress shortly after
the terrorist attack of September 11th 2001, and passed on October 27th
2001, provides
the United States Government with the means to extensively
use a number of privacy-threatening methods and technology in order to spy
on anyone inside and, in certain cases, outside the US. During the
procedures of the passing of this legislation, no member was allowed to
read any article of this bill, but was simply forced to accept it and put
it forth into functioning. Articles of the first USA Patriot Act
established the new meaning of the term 'Domestic Terrorism', defining it
as involving 'acts
dangerous to human life that are a violation of the
criminal laws of the United States or of any state', a term which is very
broad and may encompass practically thousands of law articles written in
the past and
today. Based on the above definition, not only may any
criminal be considered a terrorist and be made subject to anti-terrorist
penalties and laws of punishment, but certain sections of the USA Patriot
Act, the FBI,
NSA, CIA, and even urban Police may use email filters, spy
ware, electronic surveillance, or any other method they see fit in order to
detect and apprehend 'terrorists'. To view the full bill, please visit:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html.

2. What is the
USA
Patriot Act II?

- The second USA Patriot Act was stamped
'Confidential
** Not For Distribution' and there were attempts to pass the
legislation in
exactly the same manner as the first bill: no person of
Congress was
allowed to read it, and 'no debate would be tolerate by the
House and
Senate Leadership'. The USA Patriot Act II was an enhancement of
the first
Patriot Act, and was brought forth to Congress on the grounds
that the
first Act was not broad enough to cover certain cases of
Domestic
Terrorism. Here follows a summary of the more disturbing sections
which
threaten privacy and every day life
(http://www.infowars.com).



SECTION 101 will designate
individual
terrorists as foreign powers and again strip them of all rights
under the
'enemy combatant' designation.

SECTION 102 clearly states
that any
information gathering, regardless of whether or not those
activities are
illegal, can be considered to be clandestine intelligence
activities for a
foreign power. This makes news gathering
illegal.

SECTION 103 allows the
Federal government to use wartime
martial law powers domestically and
internationally without Congress
declaring that a state of war
exists.

SECTION 106 is bone-chilling in
its straightforwardness. It states
that broad general warrants by the
secret FSIA court (a panel of secret
judges set up in a Star Chamber
system that convenes in an undisclosed
location) granted under the first
Patriot Act is not good enough. It
states that government agents must be
given immunity for carrying out
searches with no prior court approval.
This section throws out the entire
Fourth Amendment against unreasonable
searches and seizures.

SECTION 109
allows secret Star Chamber courts to
issue contempt charges against any
individual or corporation who refuses
to incriminate themselves or others.
This section annihilates the last
vestiges of the Fifth Amendment.

SECTION 110 restates that key police
state clauses in the first Patriot Act were
not sunsetted and removes the
five year sunset clause from other
subsections of the first Patriot Act.
After all, the media has told us:
'this is the New America. Get used to
it. This is forever.'

SECTION 111 expands the definition of the 'enemy
combatant' designation.

SECTION 122 restates the governments newly
announced power of 'surveillance without a
court order.'

SECTION 123
restates that the government no longer needs
warrants and that the
investigations can be a giant dragnet-style sweep
described in press
reports about the Total Information Awareness Network.
One passage reads,
'thus the focus of domestic surveillance may be less
precise than that
directed against more conventional types of
crime.'
(Note: Time and time
again, in subsection after subsection, the
Patriot Act II states that its
new Soviet-type powers will be used to
fight international terrorism,
domestic terrorism and other types of
crimes. Of course the government has
already announced in Section 802 of
the first USA Patriot act that any
crime is considered domestic
terrorism.)

SECTION 126 grants the
government the right to mine the entire
spectrum of public and private
sector information from bank records to
educational and medical records.
This is the enacting law to allow ECHELON
and the Total Information
Awareness Network to totally break down any and
all walls of privacy.
The
government states that they must look at
everything to 'determine' if
individuals or groups might have a connection
to terrorist groups. As you
can now see, you are guilty until proven
innocent.

SECTION 127 allows
the government to takeover coroners and
medical examiners operations
whenever they see fit. See how this is like
Bill Clintons special medical
examiner he had in Arkansas that ruled that
people had committed suicide
when their arms and legs had been cut
off.

SECTION 128 allows the
Federal government to place gag orders on
Federal and State Grand Juries
and to take over the proceedings. It also
disallows individuals or
organizations to even try to quash a Federal
subpoena. So now defending
yourself will be a terrorist action.

SECTION 129 destroys any remaining
whistleblower protection for Federal agents.

SECTION 201 of the second
Patriot Act makes it a criminal
act for any member of the government or
any citizen to release any
information concerning the incarceration or
whereabouts of detainees. It
also states that law enforcement no longer
has to release the names of any detainees.

SECTION 202 allows
corporations to keep secret their activities with
toxic biological,
chemical or radiological materials.

SECTION 205 allows
top Federal
officials to keep all their financial dealings secret, and
anyone
investigating them can be considered a terrorist. This should be
very
useful for Dick Cheney to stop anyone
investigating
Halliburton.

SECTIONS 301 and 306 (Terrorist
Identification Database) set up a national database of
'suspected
terrorists' and radically expand the database to include anyone
associated
with suspected terrorist groups and anyone involved in crimes or
having
supported any group designated as 'terrorist.' These sections also
set up
a national DNA database for anyone on probation or who has been
on
probation for any crime, and orders State governments to collect the
DNA
for the Federal government.

SECTION 303 sets up national DNA
database of suspected
terrorists. The database will also be used to 'stop
other unlawful
activities.' It will share the information with state,
local and foreign
agencies for the same purposes.

SECTION 311
federalizes your local police
department in the area of information
sharing.

SECTION 312 gives immunity to law enforcement
engaging in
spying operations against the American people and would place
substantial
restrictions on court injunctions against Federal violations of
civil
rights across the board.

SECTION 313 provides
liability protection for
businesses, especially big businesses that spy on
their customers for
Homeland Security, violating their privacy agreements.
It goes on to say
that these are all preventative measures ** has anyone
seen "Minority
Report"? This is the access hub for the Total Information
Awareness
Network.

SECTION 321 authorizes foreign governments to spy on
the
American people and to share information with
foreign
governments.

SECTION 322 removes Congress from the extradition
process and
allows officers of the Homeland Security complex to extradite
American
citizens anywhere they wish. It also allows Homeland Security to
secretly
take individuals out of foreign countries.

SECTION 402 is
titled
'Providing Material Support to Terrorism.' The section reads that
there is
no requirement to show that the individual even had the intent to
aid
terrorists.

SECTION 403 expands the definition of weapons of
mass
destruction to include any activity that affects interstate or
foreign
commerce.

SECTION 404 makes it a crime for a terrorist or
'other
criminals' to use encryption in the commission of a
crime.

SECTION 408
creates 'lifetime parole' (basically, slavery) for a
whole host of
crimes.

SECTION 410 creates no statute of limitations for
anyone that
engages in terrorist actions or supports terrorists. Remember:
any crime is
now considered terrorism under the first Patriot
Act.

SECTION 411 expands
crimes that are punishable by death. Again,
they point to Section 802 of
the first Patriot Act and state that any
terrorist act or support of
terrorist act can result in the death
penalty.

SECTION 421 increases
penalties for terrorist financing. This
section states that any type of
financial activity connected to terrorism
will result to time in prison and
$10-50,000 fines per
violation.

SECTIONS 427 sets up asset forfeiture
provisions for anyone
engaging in terrorist activities.

SECTION 501 (Expatriation of
Terrorists) expands the Bush
administrations 'enemy combatant' definition
to all American citizens who
'may' have violated any provision of Section
802 of the first Patriot Act.
(Section 802 is the new definition of
domestic terrorism, and the
definition is 'any action that endangers human
life that is a violation of
any Federal or State law.) Section 501 of the
second Patriot Act directly
connects to Section 125 of the same act. The
Justice Department boldly
claims that the incredibly broad Section 802 of
the First USA Patriot Act
is not broad enough and that a new, unlimited
definition of terrorism is
needed.

Section 501 says that a US citizen
engaging in lawful activities can
be grabbed off the street and thrown
into a van never to be seen again. The
Justice Department states that they
can do this because the person 'had
inferred from conduct' that they were
not a US citizen. Remember Section
802 of the First USA Patriot Act states
that any violation of Federal or
State law can result in the 'enemy
combatant' terrorist
designation.

3. Who wrote the USA Patriot Acts and
why?

- The most obvious answer to this question is the Bush
administration. Further discussions
have been made as to who else may have
participated and assisted in the
presenting of these Acts, but no other
conclusion is 100% accurate. The
reasons for the passing of such
legislation as the Patriot Act, as stated
by the government, was to ensure
that no other tragedy such as 9/11 or
similar attacks could ever take
place again in the United States of America, or
any other country in the
world, were other countries to share
such laws. There have nevertheless
been proposed other reasons that are
not so pure and noble. The
establishment of a police state where the
government can control any and
all activity is one reason. To intercept
and take advantage of any deals
the US government might benefit from is
another. The conspiracy list is
long but all suggestions are valid in at
least one aspect: the time that
it took for the 9/11 terrorist attack to
take place and the US government
to draft-write, write and pass bill on the
first Patriot Act is absurdly
short ** the only explanation is that the USA
Patriot Act had already been
written before the attack of 9/11.

4. How would the Patriot Act II
affect us?

- The sections mentioned above are
quite detailed, but to
summarize what effects the USA Patriot Act II would
have on our
lives:

A. No online transaction would be private.
B. Emails
sent back
and forth among simple Internet users would each be scanned
and
scrutinized.
C. Information would be on a strict leash by the
government,
as anyone who believed and exercised his or her right to
freedom of
information through the Web would be considered a terrorist and
could be
apprehended, arrested and locked up without even needing a court
order.
D. Taking a walk through the park during late-night hours could be
considered
'suspicious terrorist activity', resulting in your apprehension
in order to
be questioned by local or government authorities.
E. The
basic amendments
set down by US citizens for US citizens to enjoy their
freedoms go out the
window ('Land of the Free' ** indeed).

5. What can
we do about it?

Stay informed. Use any information left on the Web to
free more
information. Fight for yours and other peoples right to privacy.
Join the
Cyberarmy.net community. Most importantly, read anything you can
from
magazines, news papers, and online articles. Be aware of the people
chosen to
be in government. Be a conscious citizen and member of your
community.
Respect the privacy of others, in hope that they will respect
your privacy
as well.





government can control any and all
activity is one reason. To intercept
and take advantage of any deals the
US government might benefit from is
another. The conspiracy list is long
but all suggestions are valid in at
least one aspect: the time that it
took for the 9/11 terrorist attack to
take place and the US government to
draft-write, write and pass bill on the
first Patriot Act is absurdly
short ** the only explanation is that the USA
Patriot Act had already been
written before the attack of 9/11.

[newyawker99]

2. Hi Ranok!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: