:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 6.07.2005 ::
:: Tha Patriot Act on Steroids? ::
Senate Gives FBI More Patriot Act Power
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI would get expanded powers to subpoena records without the approval of a judge or grand jury in terrorism investigations under Patriot Act revisions approved Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Opponents said the new powers, part of the Bush administration's effort to renew and expand the 2001 law, violated basic civil rights.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she did not support the bill in a closed committee meeting because it left open the possibility that such power could be used in criminal, rather than intelligence-gathering, inquiries.
The panel rejected one amendment that would have required that investigations have "as a significant purpose the collection of intelligence."
The American Civil Liberties Union released a statement criticizing both the substance of the bill and the closed-door meetings to write it.
"When lawmakers seek to rewrite our Fourth Amendment rights, they should at least have the gumption to do so in public," said Lisa Graves, the ACLU's senior counsel for legislative strategy. "Americans have a reasonable expectation that their federal government will not gather records about their health, their wealth and the transactions of their daily life without probable cause of a crime and without a court order."
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and the panel's ranking Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., had no immediate comment.
The bill also must be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Feinstein and other Democrats planned to again offer their amendments.
Portions of the Patriot Act - signed into law six weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks - are set to expire at the end of 2005.
Related links
Senate Intelligence Committee
As Panel Reviews Patriot Act in Secret, ACLU Calls for Fixes, Not Expansions
A Senate committee held secret deliberations Monday, including proposals to expand and make permanent controversial Patriot Act provisions such as FBI power to issue search orders without prior judicial approval. "When lawmakers seek to rewrite our Fourth Amendment rights,” said ACLU senior counsel Lisa Graves, “they should at least have the gumption to do so in public."
REFORM THE PATRIOT ACT >>
posted by me
:: 7:09:00 PM [+] ::
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