Posted on 09/16/2009 6:20:04 AM PDT by La Lydia
The Obama administration has for the first time set out its views on the controversial USA Patriot Act, telling lawmakers this week that legal approval of government surveillance methods scheduled to expire in December should be renewed, but leaving room to tweak the law to protect Americans' privacy. In a letter from Justice Department officials to key members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the administration recommended that Congress move swiftly with legislation that would protect the government's ability to collect a variety of business and credit card records and to monitor terrorism suspects with roving wiretaps.
But Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich also told Democrats that the administration is "willing to consider" additional privacy safeguards advocated by lawmakers, so long as the provisions do not "undermine the effectiveness of these important authorities."
The three provisions set to expire Dec. 31 allow investigators to monitor through roving wiretaps suspects who may be trying to escape detection by switching cellphone numbers, obtain business records of national security targets, and track "lone wolves" who may be acting alone on behalf of foreign powers or terrorist groups. The government has not employed the lone wolf provision, but department officials want to ensure they can do so in the future.
Obama's approach to electronic surveillance has been closely watched since he shifted positions during the presidential campaign last year, casting a vote to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act over the objections of liberals in his party. That law granted telecommunication companies immunity from lawsuits by Americans who argued that their privacy had been violated in an electronic data collection program....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The state-run media has all the details it needs to come to the following conclusion: When Bush did it, it was bad. When Obama does it, it's good.
I rather imagine he is fully cognizant of the importance of being able to “legally” keep an eye on his opponents... He’s not stupid, just criminal.
It’s time to take back the country.
So the ACLU will start complaining about the infringement of liberty in 5 4 3 2 1 ...
Why do we need this, the War on Terror is over?
When GWB put these laws in, I remember thinking "pain in the a$$, but probably temporarily necessary." But, I also remember thinking then that the intrusiveness of these laws was a wet dream for a Democratic president like Hillary, or as it turned out, Obama.
Wonder if we’ll hear anything from the Daily Chaos or the Huffer on this.
ping
“leaving room to tweak the law to protect Americans’ privacy.”
“leaving room to further invade Americans’ privacy.”
The list, ping
Seriously, I fear Pelosi, Reid, ACORN, Obroma and the whole trash heap of corrupt, power hungry democrats.
Someone needs to post this over @ dummy underground, Daily Chaos and Heifferton Post. Maybe, we can shake off some more of his parnoid freak supporters.
But we don’t need this, there are no terrorist.
Oh, I forgot, we are the terrorist.
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