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Posted on 03/13/2006 5:08:42 PM PST by MRMEAN
Congress & Legislation : Patriot Act authorizes antitrust wiretaps Posted by smoliva on 2006/3/10 0:37:26 (807 reads)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, March 10, 2006
Arlington, Virginia—This week, President Bush signed several amendments to the Patriot Act that gives federal prosecutors the power to spy on businesses during antitrust investigations. Although antitrust does not related to the Patriot Act’s stated goal to “deter and punish terrorist acts,” Republican congressional leaders abandoned a previous proposal to consider the antitrust provision separately.
Section 113 of the Patriot Act amendments, H.R. 3199, adds the Sherman Antitrust Act to a list of “predicate offenses” that enable the Justice Department to wiretap phone lines and bug private buildings. Such wiretaps and bugs would have to be authorized by a federal judge.
The antitrust wiretap provision was not included in H.R. 3199—or its Senate counterpart, S. 1389—during initial votes by either house of Congress. Instead, the antitrust language was added during a December 8, 2005, meeting of House and Senate conferees who were reconciling differences in the two Patriot Act bills. The final conference report was passed six days later by the House and approved by the Senate earlier this month.
The conference report said that Section 113 “adds new ‘wiretap predicates’ . . . which relate to crimes of terrorism.” There was no other discussion or debate regarding the antitrust wiretap provision in the Congressional Record.
In October 2005, the Senate unanimously passed S. 443, a bill that contained the same language as the antitrust wiretap provision later added to the Patriot Act bill. The House referred S. 443 to its Judiciary Committee, which never held hearings or otherwise considered the measure. Several Judiciary Committee members—including chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin Republican—participated in the Patriot Act conference committee.
Because the Sherman Act is vaguely worded and does not distinguish between criminal and civil violations, the Patriot Act amendments constitute a de facto expansion of criminal antitrust liability. Cases that have been treated as civil matters by the Justice Department (or administrative matters by the Federal Trade Commission) may now be prosecuted as criminal violations. For example, had the DOJ possessed wiretap powers during its investigation of Microsoft Corporation, prosecutors could have bugged Microsoft offices and spied on the company’s product development meetings in order to develop a criminal “monopolization” case.
And an article published this week by CFO.com noted that corporate trade secrets would likely be compromised by antitrust-related wiretaps. “Trade secrets might be picked up on tape inadvertently and then made part of the public record in connection with an indictment,” said the article written by Marie Leone.
Skip Oliva, president of the Voluntary Trade Council, said Congress sent a dangerous message by equating antitrust violations with terrorist acts. “The original Patriot Act was passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The law gave prosecutors new powers, because Congress believed that would help thwart future attacks. Granting the Antitrust Division the unrestricted power to spy on every business in America has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. Quite the contrary, it hands unelected, unaccountable prosecutors the power to terrorize the American economy.”
Oliva said there was no justification for granting the DOJ wiretap authority in antitrust cases. “The Antitrust Division currently wins over 95% of its criminal cases, almost exclusively through plea bargains. Jury trials are rare in antitrust, and this means that there is virtually no public or judicial scrutiny of Antitrust Division activities. Wiretap authority will encourage more prosecutions and pleas. Antitrust policy will be driven further out of the public’s eye, leaving prosecutors broad policymaking powers over every sector of the U.S. economy, including health care, energy, and technology.”
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For more information contact Skip Oliva at (703) 740-8409 or smoliva@voluntarytrade.org. The CFO.com article cited in this release can be viewed at http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5600289?f=home_featured.
This seems as plain as the nose on my face. Don't do anything illegal and you have nothing to worry about.
Duh!
Better not mention words like "jihad"... Damn!!! Now they're gonna get me...
Pesky 4th amendment, anyway. So, cops can just walk in and look around your house any time, eh? I mean... if you're not doing anything wrong, then why worry?
But none of this really matters in the article at hand. Wiretaps under this provision still have to go before a judge to issue a warrant. That being the case... I've got no problem with it. Doesn't appear to be a story here at all.
Some examples: the Justice Dept. going after right-to-life organizations under RICO; military resources being employed to find drug-runners; cities using the power of eminent domain to condemn a property for a business that is expected to bring in more revenue to city coffers.
In every case, the law was designed for something else but was bent to fit circumstances.
Chances are, the Anti-Trust Division of the Justice Dept. has been hankering for this power at least since Janet Reno was in charge. They finally found a way to get it, "fighting terrorism."
COULD bug boards?.. Somebody just fell off the turnip truck..
Musta hurt..
Be careful what you wish for..
You may get it..
Hosepipe:
It's not the fall that hurts you..
It's the landing..
Indeed..
Sounds simple, doesn't it?
So will you be giving blood samples daily? Will you allow the BATF, the local Police, the FBI, the IRS to examine your house, your bank accounts, your cars and everything else you own regularly?
Surely you're not breaking the law so you have nothing to fear, right?
Of course, those interpretations will have to go through court review, but my "guess" is, it will pass scrutiny as well..
The "penumbra" continues to expand..
This is exactly how democracy dies and dictatorships are born..
I agree. And it's especially bad when so-called conservatives are all gung-ho for it.
But I've never believed in the WOD, I knew it was a political tool when Nixon announced it's beginning..
Likewise with the Patriot Act..
It's a political tool intended to expand Federal Power over the lives of the average american citizen, nothing more, nothing less..
A true conservative is all about LESS government, more freedom...
Under any of our laws, first there must be suspicion of wrong doing.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again.
If the 'rats had proposed anything remotely like "The Patriot Act" most of the folks on FR would be hopping mad and denouncing such an act.
Since Bush did it most here think it is OK.
It is NOT OK! No matter who did it.
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