Eroding US Civil Liberties - Fact or Myth?

Bob Hubbard

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031214/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_intelligence_bill_1

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) signed legislation making it easier for FBI (news - web sites) agents investigating terrorism to demand financial records from casinos, car dealerships and other businesses.


The changes were included in a bill authorizing 2004 intelligence programs. Most details of the bill are secret, including the total costs of the programs, which are estimated to be about $40 billion. That would be slightly more than Bush had requested.


Bush signed the bill on Saturday, the White House announced.


The bill expands the number of businesses from which the FBI and other U.S. authorities conducting intelligence work can demand financial records without seeking court approval.


Under current law, "national security letters" can be issued to traditional financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions, to require them to turn over information. The bill expands the definition of financial institution to include other businesses that deal with large amounts of cash.


Supporters of the change say it will help authorities identify money laundering and other activities that fund terrorism. But some lawmakers and civil liberties advocates say the change does not provide enough safeguards to ensure that authorities will not violate the privacy of innocent people.


In other provisions, the bill:


_requires the CIA (news - web sites) director to prepare a report as soon as possible on what intelligence agencies have learned from their experiences in Iraq (news - web sites). An internal review has been under way. Both the House and Senate intelligence committees have been conducting their own inquiries on prewar intelligence.


_creates a new intelligence office in the Treasury Department (news - web sites) to improve coordination with intelligence agencies on fighting terrorist financing.


_creates pilot programs to examine whether analysts from one agency should have access to raw data from another and to improve information sharing with state and local governments.


_authorizes agencies to continue research on computerized terrorism surveillance projects formerly operated by the Defense Department. Those projects were widely criticized on civil liberties grounds, prompting Congress to remove them from the Pentagon (news - web sites).

I understand we need to ensure our police agencies have the ability to protect us. What I want to know is, at what point will we have crossed the line, and..... when did we?
 
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Bob Hubbard

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Followup article in same vein:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60964-2003Dec12?language=printer
Exerpt:
FBI Applies New Rules to Surveillance
Many Searches Not Subject To Regular Courts' Oversight
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 13, 2003; Page A01


The FBI has implemented new ground rules that fundamentally alter the way investigators handle counterterrorism cases, allowing criminal and intelligence agents to work side by side and giving both broad access to the tools of intelligence gathering for the first time in decades.

The result is that the FBI, unhindered by the restrictions of the past, will conduct many more searches and wiretaps that are subject to oversight by a secret intelligence court rather than regular criminal courts, officials said. Civil liberties groups and defense lawyers predict that more innocent people will be the targets of clandestine surveillance.


The new strategy -- launched in early summer and finalized in a classified directive issued to FBI field offices in October -- goes further than has been publicly discussed by FBI officials in the past and marks the final step in tearing down the legal wall that had separated criminal and intelligence investigations since the spying scandals of the 1970s, authorities said.

Senior FBI officials said the changes have already helped the bureau disrupt plans for at least four terrorist attacks overseas and uncover a terrorist sleeper cell in the United States, though they declined to provide details on those cases. The approach also has resulted in a notable surge in the number of counterterrorism investigations, a statistic that is classified but currently stands at more than 1,000 cases, officials said.

"With 9/11 as the catalyst for this, what we've done is fundamentally change the approach we take to every counterterrorism case," FBI terrorism chief John S. Pistole said in an interview. "This is a sea change for the FBI."

To civil libertarians and many defense lawyers, the changes pose a threat to the privacy and due-process rights of civilians because they essentially eliminate, rather than merely blur, the traditional boundaries separating criminal and intelligence investigations. As a result, these critics say, FBI agents and federal prosecutors will conduct many more searches and seizures in secret, as allowed under intelligence laws, rather than being constrained by the rules of traditional criminal warrants.

"By eliminating any distinction between criminal and intelligence classifications, it reduces the respect for the ordinary constitutional protections that people have," said Joshua L. Dratel, a New York lawyer who has filed legal briefs opposing government anti-terrorism policies. "It will result in a funneling of all cases into an intelligence mode. It's an end run around the Fourth Amendment," which protects citizens from unreasonable searches, he said.
 
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Bob Hubbard

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Boston Globe : http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/12/12/patriot_act_hearings_sought_by_democrats/

Excerpt:
Patriot Act Hearings Sought By Democrats

Author: Charlie Savage Source: The Boston Globe

Title: PATRIOT ACT HEARINGS SOUGHT BY DEMOCRATS

Ten House Democrats, voicing concern that the government strike the right balance between individual rights and collective security, have asked for sweeping congressional hearings on how the Justice Department has made use of the Patriot Act and other antiterrorism powers.

In a letter to be delivered today, Representatives Martin T. Meehan of Lowell and William D. Delahunt of Quincy, along with eight other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, ask chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, to hold hearings next year "on the war on terrorism's impact on civil liberties."

"Critics representing a wide range of ideological perspectives have raised serious questions about how the Justice Department has used its legal tools, including the Patriot Act, to investigate individuals with no apparent link to terrorism," the lawmakers write.
 
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Bob Hubbard

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http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1070951722123020.xml

Excerpt:
Panel Weighs 9/11's Effect On Rights

Author: J. Scott Orr Source: The Newark Star-Ledger (NJ)

Title: PANEL WEIGHS 9/11's EFFECT ON RIGHTS

Delving into the privacy implications of the war on terrorism, the commission probing the 9/11 attacks heard conflicting testimony yesterday on how far the government should go in monitoring individuals, eavesdropping and mining personal data.

Larry Thompson, a former deputy attorney general who helped craft the Bush administration's anti-terror initiatives, said the federal government's expanded investigative powers under the USA Patriot Act have not compromised civil liberties.

But other witnesses told the panel that, left unchecked, the federal government's use of its new investigative tools could lead to false prosecutions and, ultimately, an erosion of public confidence in the government.


Additional commentary on this one here:
http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detaila.html?id=8659
 
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Bob Hubbard

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http://www.fcnp.com/338/whitehouse.htm

Excerpt:

Iraq War Critics Sue After Winding Up on 'No Fly' List

Author: Nicholas F. Benton Source: Falls Church News Press (VA)

Title: IRAQ WAR CRITICS SUE AFTER WINDING UP ON 'NO FLY' LIST

The New York Times reported Sunday that critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy have sued the government to learn how their names ended up on a "no fly" list used to stop suspected terrorists from boarding planes.

This latest politically-motivated abuse of power by the Bush administration, in particular Attorney General John Ashcroft, is only the beginning.

The outrageous assaults to date on the civil liberties of law abiding U.S. citizens by Ashcroft's abuse of the USA Patriot Act and assignment of new, intrusive investigative powers to his FBI are but a foretaste of more to come.
 
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RCastillo

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I think it was crossed decades ago.

When people were brought before Congress way back when, were questioned about their personal activities, relationships, and social organizations about being members of certain political groups. Careers were ruined, never to be repaired again, nor was their innocence reocgnized. Even people who sacrificed for their country, such as the Commander of the ship that carried the atomic bombs, was crucified for supposedly failing to follow orders to zigzag his ships return movements which caused the ship to be torpedoed, many lives lost, many men suffered horribly at the expense of the sharks that devoured them. He had no escort, and was not notified of any enemy subs that might have been in his vicinity The Commander was ousted disgraced, and many years later, took his life because the government never really cleared his name.

Remember Manzanar? Boy, tell me women, and children back then who were already under the watchful eye, were such a terror to our national security. Jeez, even durring the Depression, our own people preyed on each other. It was a dog, eat dog situation.(If you were an Okie, you were dirt)

In the 60's, those that fought for civil rights were noted by the government, leaders such as MLK were targeted, smeared. Anyone that wanted peace, and was organized was considered suspect. To make it worse, you had a director of the FBI, who was long in the tooth, and had files on everyone. yet, no one could oust him. What a genius.

Now, it's come out, racial profiling exists(Tell me something we didn't already know) and it's denied.

All means of possible communication can now be observed, and used against it's own people, and the powers that the government has are growing more ever so slowly as times passes.

Who knows if things will ever be safe for anyone anymore, as far as civil liberties are concerned.

My God, even as a school teacher, preponderance of evidence comes first if someone accuses me. I'm considered guilty, and must prove my innocence.

Sorry for the ramblin', but your post was too good to pass on.

Thanks for listening!:asian:
 
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TonyM.

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We stopped any pretence of democracy in this country after the national security act of 1947. this is the act that authorizes the national security council (the real government) the cia and the nsa.
 

Makalakumu

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The department of the treasury used to house the secret service but I believe that was reorganized partly under the homeland security act. They kind of straddle both now...anyway

This new intelligence office in the dept. of the Treasury is under the direct command of the president and has NO CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT! This bill has created a secret organization that can be used to dig up any information it wants and no body will be able to see what the information is unless the president orders it.

Can anyone say Gestapo?
 

theletch1

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Paul, direct, to the point and.... I agree with ya!;) Civil liberties have been falling steadily by the wayside for decades. Let's look at the "internment camps" during WWII for folks of Japanese origin. McCarthyism (sp) was a glaring point of loss for personal freedom. We are indeed losing our civil liberties, privacy, and ability to trust our governement. The big difference I see here is that the losses are not as public as the two I mentioned above. They are a bit more incidious in nature. They are small things that will, eventually, have built to a level that we wake up one morning and have to wonder why we all have a microchip embedded in our buttocks for tracking by the government that we no longer control.
 
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rmcrobertson

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Got lots of democracy left, fortunately. But while Bush provides a convenient excuse, fact is we've cheerfully been throwing away a lot of our civil rights--often on the grounds that people who disagree with us, or who don't share our religious views, or who don't agree with our wars, shouldn't have any rights.

Look at some of the discussions on these threads. Or listen to that yutz Dennis Miller, or Michael Savage and the rest of 'em....all that "common sense," nonsense about traitors...
 

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