WOW! Just when I thought I've heard and seen it all... I find out this news!!! When former President Bush signed this bill into law 8 years ago after the 9/11 attacks, I was fuming along with millions of other FREEDOM LOVING Americans. Why? Well simply because this bill gave our government the right to INVADE our privacy! If our government "suspected" you or I as a "terrorist" they could LEGALLY tap our phones and our online activity, even search our homes without a court order as before. The Patriot Act was a way for our government to squash our CIVIL LIBERTIES on the PRETENSE of protecting us from terrorism.
For those of you who are screaming at your monitors, I know why the Patriot Act was passed. It was intended to protect ALL Americans from future terrorists act. It was intended to monitor "suspected persons" who may be planning another attack. However, what this bill did was open the door for the government to spy on any American. The Patriot Act was a trojan horse in the same way the Health Care Reform bill is being presented to us! "For the good of all citizens". Yeah right! Both the Patriot Act and the Health Care Reform bill GIVE our government MORE POWER and CONTROL over ALL Americans!
Now you would THINK President Obama would immediately REJECT/REPEAL the Patriot Act. Wouldn't you? I mean he is supposedly fighting for the "people" right? Well APPARENTLY NOT! President Obama is NOT going to let the Patriot Act EXPIRE at the end of this year! President Obama INTENDS to EXTEND basically KEEP former President Bush's policy of FEAR, CONTROL and SPYING ABILITY! Didn't President Obama CAMPAIGN AGAINST Bush's policies??? I've taken the following quote that MSNBC reported when then U.S. Senator Obama was campaigning for President. Click HERE to read the entire article.
When he was running for the U.S. Senate in 2003, Obama filled out a questionnaire for the Illinois chapter of the National Organization for Women in which he stated his opposition to the president’s Patriot Act. "Yes, I would vote to repeal the U.S. Patriot Act," he wrote. "I would consider replacing that shoddy and dangerous law with a new, carefully crafted proposal that addressed in a much more limited fashion the legitimate needs of law enforcement in combating terrorism." In a speech to the American Library Association, he called for the Senate to rewrite the law to keep "Big Brother" from "peering over our shoulder." Yet when the Patriot Act came up for renewal in 2005, Obama compromised and voted alongside 88 other senators to reauthorize the law, even though the new version had only "modest" changes. "The compromise is far from perfect," he said. But it was good enough."
Please read the article's I've posted below to understand how our government has already ABUSED their authority under the Patriot Act. So basically someone like myself can be considered a "terrorist" because I challenge our government, write about our government and may possibly pose a threat to our government by making "YOU THINK" or "QUESTION" our government's motives.
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The Washington Post
Abuse of Authority
The FBI's gross misuse of a counterterrorism device
written by WP Editorials
Sunday, March 11, 2007
THE EXPANSION of law enforcement powers approved by Congress after Sept. 11 and contained in the USA Patriot Act was conditioned on the notion that these new authorities would be carefully used and closely monitored. An infuriating report released Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, demonstrates that the Federal Bureau of Investigation treated its new powers with anything but that kind of restraint. The report depicts an FBI cavalierly using its expanded power to issue "national security letters" without adequate oversight or justification.
National security letters are used to obtain information such as credit and financial data and telephone or e-mail subscriber records (but not the content of messages) without having to secure a court order. The Patriot Act made it far easier for the FBI to use this tool. Now, the information needs to be only "relevant" to a terrorism or espionage case -- involving any individual swept up in the case, not just the target -- and the heads of FBI field offices can approve the search.
Having obtained these far-reaching new powers, according to the report, the FBI proceeded to "seriously misuse" them. It didn't establish clear guidelines for using national security letters, didn't institute an adequate system for approving requests and didn't put in place procedures to purge information if the investigation fizzled. Although the FBI itself reported to a review board a mere 26 instances in which information was improperly obtained, the real number appears to be much higher. Of just 77 files reviewed by the inspector general, 17 -- 22 percent -- revealed one or more instances in which information may have been obtained in violation of the law. Indeed, the FBI's procedures were so slipshod, the report concludes, that it didn't even keep proper count of how many such letters were issued. The use of these letters ballooned from 8,500 in 2000 to 47,000 in 2005 -- but that "significantly understated" the real numbers, the report found.
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PBS - Trascript
Justice Department Audit Reveals FBI Misused Patriot Act
Originally Aired: March 9, 2007
A Justice Department audit released Friday said that the FBI used the Patriot Act improperly and unlawfully to gain information about people in the United States. Two members of the House Judiciary Committee debate the audit's conclusions.
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