Posted on 09/14/2003 7:06:01 AM PDT by Mark Felton
WASHINGTON -- For months, President Bush's advisers have assured a skittish public that law-abiding Americans have no reason to fear the long reach of the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act because its most intrusive measures would require a judge's sign-off.
But in a plan announced last week to expand counterterrorism powers, Bush adopted a very different tack. In a three-point presidential plan that some critics are already dubbing Patriot Act II, Bush is seeking broad new authority to allow federal agents -- without the approval of a judge or a federal prosecutor -- to demand private records and compel testimony.
Bush also wants to expand the use of the death penalty in crimes such as terrorist financing, and he wants to make it tougher for defendants in such cases to be freed on bail.
Opponents say that the proposal to allow federal agents to issue subpoenas without the approval of a judge or grand jury would significantly expand the law enforcement powers granted by Congress after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And they say it also would allow the Justice Department -- after months of growing friction with some judges -- to limit the role of the judiciary still further in terrorism cases.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who is sponsoring the measure to broaden the death penalty, said in an interview that he was troubled by the other elements of Bush's plan. He said he wanted to hold hearings on the president's call for strengthening the Justice Department's subpoena power "because I'm concerned that it may be too sweeping." The no-bail proposal concerns him too, Specter said, because "the Justice Department has gone too far. You have to have a reason to detain."
Administration officials defended Bush's plan.
"We don't want to tie the hands of prosecutors behind their backs," said Mark Corallo, a Justice Department spokesman, "and it's our responsibility when we find weaknesses in the law to make suggestions to Congress on how to fix them."
Civil rights attorneys, defense advocates and some former prosecutors say they perceived no need to broaden the Justice Department's powers so markedly.
"The fundamental issue here," Nicholas Gess, a former federal prosecutor and a senior aide to the former attorney general Janet Reno, said, "is that at a time of such concern over civil liberties, there's good reason to have a judge looking over the government's shoulder."
Bush's proposal, he said, "means that there are no effective checks and balances. It's very worrisome.
Trust me -- NY Times.
Just wait when another terrorist attack or two happens and see what Patriot III and IV will be about.
RICO was to be used against Mafia, and ended up used against pro-life protesters and as a tool to confiscate cash. The bell tolls for you.
no. I'd like to see more though.
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