By Kenneth J. Theisen
The draconian national security state law known as the PATRIOT Act was set to expire this coming Sunday. The act was passed in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and it was basically a wish list for all those who support dictatorship and the violation of people’s rights.
At that time the Bush regime praised Congress for providing it with the “legal” tools to carry out its world-wide war of terror. On Wednesday night, the Senate voted to extend the PATRIOT Act for another year. This is in keeping with the Senate’s perfect record of going along with the continuance of the national security state constructed during the Bush regime.
The law contains provisions that allow massive spying, including “roving” wiretap surveillance on multiple telephones, the seizure of records and property, and the monitoring of non-US citizens who do not have ties to terrorist groups. The legislation is expected to pass the House on Thursday.
Right-wing Republican Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions praised the passage of the extension by stating, “This extension keeps Patriot’s security measures in place and demonstrates that there is a growing recognition that these crucial provisions must be preserved.” But this bill was passed on a voice vote by the Democrat dominated Senate, not just by right-wing Republicans. Voice votes do not require any debate on the Senate floor and none took place.
In a statement, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said he "would have preferred to add oversight and judicial review improvements" to the act’s renewal, but this did not occur when the Senate actually voted. This should come as no surprise, as the Democrats often say one thing and then do another. This way they can say they want to protect our rights, while at the same time passing laws that abridge those rights.
The protections and amendments that the Democrats failed to get into the legislation or even to debate on the floor would have restricted FBI national security letters (NSLs), and made it easier to contest gag orders imposed on Americans whose records are seized with these letters. There has been rampant abuse of NSLs by the FBI. The PATRIOT Act renewal will allow these abuses to continue.
The Senate also failed to protect library records which are subject to being spied upon by the government. Librarians are even forbidden to talk about library records being seized by government agents. The bill also failed to halt the indiscriminate dissemination of surveillance results. It also fails to require that unneeded records would have been destroyed after a designated period of time. Such records can now be kept forever by the government.
In 2006, and again in 2008, people went to the polls in their millions to vote for change. Many thought an Obama administration and a Democrat-led congress would rollback the political trajectory begun under the Bush regime. But instead of change we continue to see more of the same. With this latest move Congress is just confirming what many of us have been saying – the fascist trajectory of the Bush regime has not been halted, but is continuing. Massive spying, imperialist wars, torture, rendition, the denial of basic legal rights, oppression of women, racism, attacks on immigrants and the LGBT community, etc. are all occurring under the Obama administration just as they were under the Bush regime.
Real change will not occur if we rely on our so-called elected leaders to effect change. They represent a ruling class that is only interested in protecting their imperialist system. Real change will only occur when millions of us take to the streets in concerted action to demand it and to make it happen.