Under the Patriot Act, the FBI has been collecting your bank,
internet service provider, and other personal information without court
approval. According to its report, last
year the FBI sent 9,200 ‘national security letters’ to numerous companies,
forcing them to turn over detailed information about over 3,500 US citizens and
permanent residents. By the votes of 96
Senators (yes, almost all Democrats included), the now permanent Patriot Act
allows the FBI to collect this information without warrants. And while the ‘compromise’ Patriot Act
requires the FBI to report on their spying, (1) the notion that this regime can
obtain this kind of information on whoever they want is unfathomable, even if
they file an annual report, and (2) in Bush’s signing statement to the Patriot
Act, he arrogated himself the right not to follow its oversight provisions,
like the one that made the FBI file this report (see Today’s Reason to Drive
Out the Bush Regime, 5/1).
Besides what’s in the FBI’s report, the Washington Post
reported that over 30,000 additional national security letters were used to
obtain subscriber information (names and addresses), and the amount of secret
warrants for clandestine searches or surveillance obtained through the FISA
court increased dramatically to 2,072.
All this is of course justified in the name of the ‘war on
terrorism’ ( which is nothing but a way to trick people to go along with unjust
wars, torture, and unprecedented police state measures. Do you feel safer in Bush’s wiretapped world,
with a government that openly tortures people easily able to access your personal
information?
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
(Source: ‘FBI Sought Data on Thousands in ’05’, Washington Post, 5/2/06)