Posted on 05/18/2005 8:05:25 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON, May 18 - The Bush administration and Senate Republican leaders are pushing a plan that would significantly expand the F.B.I.'s power to demand business records in terror investigations without obtaining approval from a judge, officials said on Wednesday.
The proposal, which is likely to be considered next week in a closed session of the Senate intelligence committee, would allow federal investigators to subpoena records from businesses and other institutions without a judge's sign-off if they declared that the material was needed as part of a foreign intelligence investigation.
The proposal, part of a broader plan to extend antiterrorism powers under the law known as the USA Patriot Act, was concluded in recent days by Republican leaders on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in consultation with the Bush administration, Congressional officials said.
Administration and Congressional officials who support the idea said the proposal would give the F.B.I. a much-needed tool to track leads in terrorism and espionage investigations that would be quicker and less cumbersome than existing methods. They pointed out that the administrative subpoena power being sought for the F.B.I. in terror cases was already in use in more than 300 other types of crimes, including health care fraud, child exploitation, racketeering and drug trafficking.
"Why not provide that same tool to national security investigators as well?" asked an aide to the intelligence committee who was involved in the proposal, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue will be discussed at a closed meeting scheduled for May 26. "There wasn't really a whole lot of cogent argument against it."
But word of the proposal on Wednesday generated immediate protests from civil rights advocates, who said that it would give the F.B.I. virtually unchecked authority in terror investigations, and the plan is likely to intensify the growing debate...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That's all you have to read..
All the rest is icing..
It was the previous administration's fixation with a law enforcement approach to terrorism that got us 9/11. Leave the terrorists to killers, not cops. The job is to reconnoiter, target, and terminate, not 'build a case'.
For domestic problems, bring back the Posse Comitatus.
California is already pushing legislation to put SERIAL NUMBERS on BULLETS for cripes sake. What's easier to steal than bullets? How difficult would it be to plug someone with your enemy's stolen bullets. This has gone off the charts for sheer idiocy.
We'll have more illegal bullet presses than meth labs!
Didn't Ashcroft, et al, make all sorts of assurances that the Patriot Act still required a Judge's approval and review and a valid warrant?
Didn't he/they tell us that there was nothing to be concerned about in this area?
That the Law and the Constitution were being followed in the Patriot Act, and all actions would follow proper procedure?
Wasn't that the Message?
Apparently that only applied until Patriot was passed and amendments could be made..
NEVER TRUST THE GOVERNMENT WITH YOUR FREEDOMS...
California is already pushing legislation to put SERIAL NUMBERS on BULLETS for cripes sake. What's easier to steal than bullets? How difficult would it be to plug someone with your enemy's stolen bullets. This has gone off the charts for sheer idiocy.
We'll have more illegal bullet presses than meth labs!
This SHOULD have been the headline BEFORE the WACO tragedy.
Who knows? Maybe innocent lives could have been saved.
Has the Governator made any comments on the serial numbered bullets proposal?
Governator hasn't said anything yet. He picks his battles because he has the Teachers and other unions on his #ss. They're after him with full fangs & claws bared, spending $ millions of member dues to try to knock him out.
Governator hasn't said anything yet. He picks his battles because he has the Teachers and other unions on his #ss. They're after him with full fangs & claws bared, spending $ millions of member dues to try to knock him out.
There's nothing here that says why the FBI is having such a hard time getting judges to approve subpoenas for business records that the agency has to cut the judges out of the picture entirely.
This is exactly the type of dictatorial powers the Constitution was meant to prevent.
If the FBI is granted those extraordinary powers it will be up to the courts to declare them unconstitutional, and with our activist judiciary there's no guarantee that they won't side with the FBI.
Whether or not the courts care about people's freedoms, I would expect them to care about their own powers.
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