Posted on 02/14/2005 8:59:15 AM PST by Dan from Michigan
Bush Urges Renewal of Patriot Act
44 minutes ago White House - AP
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) on Monday urged Congress to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department (news - web sites)'s widely criticized anti-terrorism law.
AP Photo
Reuters Slideshow: President Bush
"We must not allow the passage of time or the illusion of safety to weaken our resolve in this new war" on terrorism, Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department.
The president also argued that the Senate must give his nominees for the federal bench up-or-down votes without delay to fill vacancies in the courts.
The Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, bolstered FBI (news - web sites) surveillance and law-enforcement powers in terror cases, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado for months, and allowed secret proceedings in immigration cases.
Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates lambasted the law because they said it undermines freedom. But Bush said the act "has been vital to our success in tracking terrorists and disrupting their plans." He noted that many key elements of the law are set to expire at the end of the year and said Congress must act quickly to renew it.
The Patriot Act was pushed by Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft (news - web sites), who was in the audience as Gonzales took his oath from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (news - web sites). Bush lauded Ashcroft's tireless efforts to make America safer as he oversaw a drop in violent crime besides his counterterrorism work.
Gonzales, who served as White House counsel during the last four years, said he would be a part of Bush's team but his first allegiance will be to the Constitution.
"I am confident that in the days and years ahead we in the department will work together tirelessly to address terrorism and other threats to our nation and to confront injustice with integrity and devotion to our highest ideals," Gonzales said.
I'm not going through that discussion again.
Please give a detailed defense of the act by telling precisely how it has been used and has helped. Thank you.
I know it goes on right now and it's wrong there too.
"Please give a detailed defense of the act by telling precisely how it has been used and has helped. Thank you".
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I will as soon as you give a detailed list of the offensive portions and how they have been abused.
I am sure it will be reported to the federal govt who will come looking for you to know what you have done with it. It used to be 10k before, and now it is down to 5. The Patriot Act has increased the cost of doing business, especially in the financial sector. I still wouldn't have problems with it if the govt put in a provision saying that only terrorism charges would be prosecuted. Now, they can subpeona any financial record under the Patriot Act and can prosecute you for tax evasion even if you have no terrorism ties. It will only get worse when someone like Hillary gets in power.
SEC. 213. AUTHORITY FOR DELAYING NOTICE OF THE EXECUTION OF A WARRANT. Section 3103a of title 18, United States Code, is amended-- (1) by inserting `(a) IN GENERAL- ' before `In addition'; and (2) by adding at the end the following: `(b) DELAY- With respect to the issuance of any warrant or court order under this section, or any other rule of law, to search for and seize any property or material that constitutes evidence of a criminal offense in violation of the laws of the United States, any notice required, or that may be required, to be given may be delayed if-- `(1) the court finds reasonable cause to believe that providing immediate notification of the execution of the warrant may have an adverse result (as defined in section 2705); `(2) the warrant prohibits the seizure of any tangible property, any wire or electronic communication (as defined in section 2510), or, except as expressly provided in chapter 121, any stored wire or electronic information, except where the court finds reasonable necessity for the seizure; and `(3) the warrant provides for the giving of such notice within a reasonable period of its execution, which period may thereafter be extended by the court for good cause shown.'.
Don't recognize the AWB, but I agree that this thing needs to get nuked asap, and take the stupid Homeland Security organization with it...kick some ass at the FBI and TSA or whatever but this thing has been nothing but a damn joke from border patrol to shoe sniffing...
I haven't a clue anymore who convinced the President to go this route but whoever it was needs to be retired to a nearby concentration camp of his own design.
So you can't. We knew that.
"Know your customer rule", part of the act, which was opposed by conservatives for years and years, was put in and remains. It violates the 4th amendment. Liberals like it.
If the 4th doesn't concern you, you ain't a conservative.
If I ain't a conservative, then John Kerry is the 2nd coming of Ronald Reagan.
I did last November -- $6,500. No problem. It's incumbant on the bank to check your name against the list of provided by Homeland Security. If your name isn't on the list, the transaction sails through, like mine did.
So you are saying that I will be contacted by the federal govenment because of this transaction this morning?
If so you'll probably see me in the gulag with you..
Many here applaud and defend the Patriot Act and would like to see Senator Hatch's Victory Act become law. These new laws give the government incredible new powers and increases the scope of government in our lives. We now have secret courts (FISA) and sneak and peek searchs where agents of the government may enter and search your home with a warrant from this secret court. And the delays in notification that your home was searched can be almost indefinite.
All I can say is this: To those enemies of liberty, those who would take away my right to privacy, my right to free travel, my right to the sanctity of my home. To those who would scare Americans with phantoms of lost security, I say you are no patriots. I say that you have lost touch with what America should be, with the reason it was founded. America was to be a place where the government was weak, where the citizenry were strong. America was to be a place where liberty is more important than all else. You, gentlemen, have lost sight of this. You think that being an American patriot means towing a certain political line. Nothing could be further from the truth.
These enemies of American liberty take away your freedoms by telling you that these steps are necessary for your security. Yet these very same people who take away your liberty in the name of security fail to fund first responders adequately. These very same people who take away your liberty fail to check incoming container ships for weapons of mass destruction. If these people really wanted to protect the American people they wouldn't need to take away our liberty. They could install radiation sensors in ports. They could adequately fund first responders. They could further improve airport and border security. But they don't. Instead they take away your privacy rights. Instead they surveil people involved in dissent. Instead they indefinitely detain — without charges and based on secret evidence — American citizens
Do you know what "U.S. Code Title 18, 3103a Additional grounds for issuing warrant" look like before the PATRIOT ACT ammended it?
"Made any bank transactions lately, of size say 5k?"
Yes-- As a matter of fact I made a wire transfer of almost $40K to a firm in Canada.
No jack-booted thugs yet, but I'll let you know when they arrive!
Still ducking. Maybe you're an ostrich.
Re-debated?
From what I heard, it was never debated the first time.
Most of Congress was not allowed to read it.
I had a list of the problems with it that I posed back when it passed. It went into details. I'll be searching them off and on all day till I find them.
Yeah I heard that too.
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