posted
The Obama administration supports extending a controversial provision of the Patriot Act that allows investigators to demand that businesses turn over sensitive financial records, without specifying the investigation's target or why the files are needed.
A company receiving a letter demanding the records is subject to a permanent gag order, prohibited from ever disclosing that the government asked for the records. The law doesn’t even specify whether the company can call a lawyer or appeal to a judge, although the feds claim they always allow a company to obtain legal counsel.
The business records provision was extended under the Bush administration, which had planned to make it permanent. A powerful coalition of “strange bedfellows”—that included the ACLUE, The US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Association of Manufacturers—semi-successfully lobbied. They didn’t kill it but they kept it from becoming permanent.
Businesses and civil rights advocates feared that this kind of unchecked government power was dangerous. Over 200 business records letters have been issued by the government under the Patriot Act. Under another provision of the law—in which business records can be demanded without a court order for national security reasons—federal officials have issued tens of thousands of letters.
As a presidential candidate, Obama promised to re-examine the law. Many hoped he would refuse to extend the business records provisions. But in a letter to lawmakers, Justice Department officials said the administration supports extending the provision, along with two other controversial powers of the government—the ability to monitor “lone wolf” suspected terrorists with no connection to known terrorist groups and the “roving wire tap” provision that allows the government to listen in on phone lines even if suspects change phones or phone numbers.
From the Associated Press:
Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the administration is willing to consider stronger civil rights protections in the new law "provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important (provisions)."
Leahy responded with a statement saying it is important for the administration and Congress to "work together to ensure that we protect both our national security and our civil liberties."
The committee has scheduled a hearing next week on the Patriot Act.
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“We are very encouraged to learn that the Obama administration has stated a willingness to discuss reforming the deeply flawed provisions in the Patriot Act, though we are disappointed at its support for the reauthorization of the three expiring provisions,” said Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Washington Legislative Office.
posted
A company receiving a letter demanding the records is subject to a permanent gag order, prohibited from ever disclosing that the government asked for the records.
Permanent gag order!?!?
What the hell?
What was Bush (officially) trying to accomplish?
Posts: 1802 | From: Utah | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by SeekingFreedom: A company receiving a letter demanding the records is subject to a permanent gag order, prohibited from ever disclosing that the government asked for the records.
Permanent gag order!?!?
What the hell?
What was Bush (officially) trying to accomplish?
I never understood that part either. Why would it have to be a permanent gag order? Shouldn't that be lifted after the inquiry/investigation is concluded?
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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people complain about the health care bill being "forced thru"?
the intent was to keep people under investigation from being able to ask their phone company (for instance) whether they had their records pulled by the Feds.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
the "permanace" of it was to protect the telecoms from being liable:
The telecommunication firms are facing more than 40 lawsuits alleging the privacy of their customers was violated when their records were allegedly turned over to the government. The companies have refused to comment on their activities related to the government.
Senate OKs immunity for telecoms in intelligence bill
updated 4:52 p.m. EST, Tue February 12, 2008
From Pam Benson and Kevin Bohn CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate voted Tuesday to give immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the federal government eavesdrop on suspected terrorists after the September 11 attacks. art.garfield.dome.cnn.jpg
Lawmakers are debating an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this week.
An attempt to remove language granting retroactive immunity from the intelligence bill failed by a 31-67 vote.
A final vote is expected late Tuesday on legislation meant to update the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the law that regulates the intelligence community's surveillance practices.
The House already has passed a version of the bill, but it does not include retroactive immunity for the telecommunication companies.
AT&T, Verizon and other companies are believed to have provided information to aid the National Security Agency's no-warrant wiretapping program. The program, which Bush authorized in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, monitored communications involving suspected al Qaeda members and people in the United States.
The U.S. government, with assistance from major telecommunications carriers including AT&T, has engaged in a massive program of illegal dragnet surveillance of domestic communications and communications records of millions of ordinary Americans since at least 2001.
News reports in December 2005 first revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been intercepting Americans’ phone calls and Internet communications. Those news reports, plus a USA Today story in May 2006 and the statements of several members of Congress, revealed that the NSA is also receiving wholesale copies of their telephone and other communications records. All of these surveillance activities are in violation of the privacy safeguards established by Congress and the U.S. Constitution.
The evidence also shows that the government did not act alone. EFF has obtained whistleblower evidence [PDF] from former AT&T technician Mark Klein showing that AT&T is cooperating with the illegal surveillance. The undisputed documents show that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers, and provides those copies to the NSA. This copying includes both domestic and international Internet activities of AT&T customers. As one expert observed, “this isn’t a wiretap, it’s a country-tap.”
EFF is fighting these illegal activities on multiple fronts. In Hepting v. AT&T, EFF filed the first case against a telecom for violating its customers' privacy. In addition, EFF is representing victims of the illegal surveillance program in Jewel v. NSA, a lawsuit filed in September 2008 against the government seeking to stop the warrantless wiretapping and hold the government officials behind the program accountable.
EFF is not alone in this fight. There are multiple cases challenging various parts of the illegal surveillance against both the telecoms and the government. This page collects information on EFF's cases as well as cases brought by individuals, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and of Illinois, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and others.
posted
I'm refering to the business records part, Glass. How can a business be forced to give up private information and then be gagged so as to not address it?
Financial records, not communications.
Posts: 1802 | From: Utah | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by SeekingFreedom: I'm refering to the business records part, Glass. How can a business be forced to give up private information and then be gagged so as to not address it?
Financial records, not communications.
LOL, sorry, business records are business records. money phone records, it don't matter, they had everything sewn up tight.
they don't want the people they are after to know they are after them.
you guys screaming how bad Obama is just never bothered to pay any attention to those of us (conservative and liberal alike) who were trying to tell y'all what was going on...
i never expected Obama to fix all of this overnight.. people will say he's not "protecting" them from osambinalivetoolong
fox friends already spends a portion of time each day talking about how the new admin doesn't know how to fight the war on terror...
the biggest new spokesperson is Liz Cheney, who's doing her best to keep her father's name 'clean'.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
How Liberty Dies: The Patriot Reauthorization Act by John W. Whitehead
6/13/2005
At a massive 342 pages, the Patriot Act violates at least six of the ten original amendments known as the Bill of Rights—the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments—and possibly the Thirteenth and Fourteenth as well.
The Patriot Act was rushed through Congress, even though the majority of our representatives admitted to not reading it, reassured perhaps by the inclusion of a five-year sunset provision. But that sun does not seem to be setting on this chilling piece of legislation. Instead, the Senate Intelligence Committee is not only working to make the Patriot Act permanent, but also to expand its reach.
Among some of the widely cited concerns about the Patriot Act are that it redefines terrorism so broadly that many non-terrorist political activities such as protest marches or demonstrations and civil disobedience can be considered a terrorist act; grants the FBI the right to come to your place of employment, demand your personal records and question your supervisors and fellow employees, all without notifying you; allows the government access to your medical records, school records and practically every personal record about you; allows the government to secretly demand to see records of books or magazines you’ve checked out in any public library and Internet sites you’ve visited (at least 545 libraries received such demands in the first year following passage of the Patriot Act); and most egregious of all, it allows the FBI to enter your home through the use of a special warrant, search your personal effects and confiscate your personal property without informing you that they have done so.
Yet despite the many objections to these disturbing provisions within the Patriot Act, the Senate Intelligence Committee has wholeheartedly embraced the Patriot Reauthorization Act (PAREA), which takes government intrusion into the lives of average
posted
Bush On TARP: ‘Why Did I Sign On To This Proposal If I Don’t Understand What It Does?’ On September 24, 2008, former President George Bush addressed the nation to explain the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that was being crafted by the administration, the Treasury Department, and Congress. “Under our proposal,” Bush explained, “the federal government would put up to $700 billion taxpayer dollars on the line to purchase troubled assets that are clogging the financial system.”
But former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer wrote in an upcoming book (excerpted by GQ) that, even hours before he gave an address promoting the TARP, Bush fundamentally misunderstood what the program was all about:
Under his proposal, he said, the federal government would buy troubled mortgages on the cheap and then resell them at a higher price when the market for them stabilized. “We’re buying low and selling high,” he kept saying. The problem was that his proposal didn’t work like that…As it turned out, the plan wasn’t to buy low and sell high. In some cases, in fact, Secretary Paulson wanted to pay more than the securities were likely worth in order to put more money into the markets as soon as possible. [...]
In the theater, the president was clearly confused about how the government would buy these securities. He repeated his belief that the government was going to “buy low and sell high,” and he still didn’t understand why we hadn’t put that into the speech like he’d asked us to. When it was explained to him that his concept of the bailout proposal wasn’t correct, the president was momentarily speechless. He threw up his hands in frustration. “Why did I sign on to this proposal if I don’t understand what it does?” he asked.
The proposal that Bush offered that night would ultimately be rejected by the House of Representatives, with a slightly modified bill passing one week later. And it should come as no surprise that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson ultimately abandoned the idea to buy toxic assets entirely, instead opting for bank recapitalization, devoid of meaningful strings for the banks. As Latimer reported it, “the treasury secretary didn’t seem to know [which course of action he favored], changed his mind, had misled the president, or some combination of the three.”
Meanwhile, the toxic assets, which warranted such attention at the time, have not gone away. As the Congressional Oversight Panel for the TARP wrote last month, the financial system remains vulnerable “to the crisis conditions that TARP was meant to fix.”
In the book, Latimer also reported that Bush joked about Hillary Clinton’s “fat keister,” called Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) the “governor of Guam,” and said that he himself had “redefined the conservative movement.”
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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posted
I thought that comment was a little out of place about Hillary's Keister when you look at his old ladies big can talking about a all the right places,right places for a solar eclipes.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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