By Kenneth J. Theisen
On October 8, 2009, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to continue many of the Bush regime policies that stripped most of us of civil liberty provisions guaranteed by the Constitution. The Committee passed the USA PATRIOT Act Extension Act of 2009.
The original PATRIOT Act was passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and was a virtual wish list for those who thought the Constitution only inhibited the dictatorial powers they wanted to give to the President and the national security state. National security became the excuse to strip us of our right to be secure from the overreach of a fascist U.S. government.
According to the ACLU, the bill that passed the Committee fell “far short of restoring the necessary civil liberties protections lacking in the original Patriot Act.” The bill, passed by the committee after two sessions of debate, makes only minor changes to the fascist PATRIOT Act.
The bill allows the continued abuse by the government of its use of National Security Letters (NSL). These are letters used by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to obtain financial and other records on any of us from our banks, work places, etc. They are not overseen by a judge and allow the government agencies to go on fishing expeditions to spy on us. No search warrant is needed for these fishing expeditions. Gag orders are issued to the recipients of these NSLs so that they can not inform the people targeted by the government that they are victims of government spying. Various investigations of the use of NSL by government agencies have shown vast abuses of this law, but yet the Judiciary Committee continued the government power to issue them. The FBI has even admitted that its personnel have repeatedly failed to follow the regulations that supposedly are used in the issuance of NSLs.
The bill also allows the government to continue “sneak and peek” searches. These are really “legalized” break ins conducted by the government to search a home without notification to the resident until a certain time has passed.
Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office stated, “We are disappointed that further changes were not made to ensure Americans’ civil liberties would be adequately protected by this Patriot Act legislation. This truly was a missed opportunity for the Senate Judiciary Committee to right the wrongs of the Patriot Act and stand up for Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. The meager improvements made during this markup will certainly be overshadowed by allowing so many horrible amendments to be added to an already weak bill. Congress cannot continue to make this mistake with the Patriot Act again and again. We urge the Senate to adopt amendments on the floor that will bring this bill in line with the Constitution.”
But do not hold your breath waiting for members of congress to come to our rescue. The PATRIOT Act contains many violations of the Constitution. The now Democrat-run congress will not protect you. The Democrats overwhelmingly supported the original law after 9/11 and have done very little to protect us from our own government since. The national security state is obviously still being protected and used by the Democrats after they obtained control of both houses and the presidency.
Since assuming the presidency, the Obama administration has directed its Department of Justice (DOJ) to defend the government in all the “national security state” cases that have come before the courts. DOJ has defended: “state secrets,” indefinite detention, the “right” of the government to keep detainees from speaking to an attorney, the “right” of the government to detain prisoners indefinitely with out due process rights, the extraordinary rendition program, the “right” of the military to hold kangaroo courts, etc.
The latest move by the Senate just confirms that if we wish to reverse the fascist trajectory begun by the Bush regime, we will have to build a mass movement to do so. Our elected “saviors” are too busy defending that fascist trajectory.