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BillOfRights.net - Secrets And Lies

First mistake: ensuring presidential openness
and transparency by creating a secret court.

The FISA court permits warrantless government
surveillance so long as the primary purpose
is to obtain foreign intelligence
information. Under FISA, the government
needn't show probable cause that a crime has
occurred; FISA surveillance orders are valid
for 90 days as opposed to 30 days for
ordinary search warrants; the target of
surveillance is never advised of this
surveillance; and the application itself and
supporting affidavits are filed under seal so
that neither the target nor his attorney can
ever see the allegations against him.

Patriot Act

Much of the thrust of the Patriot Act was
formulated two years before September 11,
2002 in the Hart-Rudman report, a broadly
bipartisan report on the major issues of
national interest and national security. The
Report: (1) declared that control of Mid-East
oil resources would become more necessary in
the future, (2) anticipated that severe
resistance would challenge US control of the
Mid-East both at home and abroad, (3) called
for many of the Homeland Security/Patriot Act
measures implemented since Sept 11 and (4)
warned that domestic cynicism, apathy, and
lack of support would have to be overcome by
whatever means necessary, because maintaining
the US world position will require sacrifice
and risk on the part of all citizens.

Gonzales, Mueller admit FBI broke law

The nation's top two law enforcement
officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke
the law to secretly pry out personal
information about Americans. They apologized
and vowed to prevent further illegal
intrusions.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales left open
the possibility of pursuing criminal charges
against FBI agents or lawyers who improperly
used the USA Patriot Act in pursuit of
suspected terrorists and spies.
...
The FBI has also scrapped the use of "exigent
letters," which were used to gather
information without the signed permission of
an authorized official.

"But the question should and must be asked:
How could this happen? Who is accountable?"
Mueller said. "And the answer to that is, I
am to be held accountable."

Mueller said he had not been asked to resign,
nor had he discussed doing so with other
officials. He said employees would probably
face disciplinary actions, not criminal
charges, following an internal investigation
of how the violations occurred.

PATRIOT Act is Bullshit

Penn & Teller

Justice Dept.: FBI Misused Patriot Act

"In many cases, there was no pending
investigation associated with the request at
the time the exigent letters were sent," the
audit concluded.

The letters inaccurately said the FBI had
requested subpoenas for the information
requested - "when, in fact, it had not,"
the audit found.
...
"I am very concerned that the FBI has so
badly misused national security letters,"
said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., top
Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee
that oversees the FBI.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., another member on
the judiciary panel, said the report "proves
that 'trust us' doesn't cut it."

National Security Presidential Directives [NSPD]

George W. Bush Administration

FBI underreported use
of USA Patriot Act

The FBI in 2005 reported to Congress that its
agents had delivered a total of 9,254
national security letters seeking e-mail,
telephone or financial information on 3,501
U.S. citizens and legal residents over the
previous two years.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn
A. Fine's report says the number of letters
was underreported by 20 percent, according
to the officials.

The Patriot Act and Civil Liberties

Without any public debate or hearings, the
Patriot Act passed nearly unanimously in the
Senate by a vote of 98-1. Only Sen. Russell
Feingold voted against it and he was
excoriated for having the temerity to suggest
openly that there are parts of this law that
had absolutely no bearing whatever on
fighting against a possible terrorist
attack.

It Usually Starts with John Ashcroft:
The pre-9/11 timeline has never made less
sense

It is becoming very clear that the 9/11
attacks were the result of a bad spark plug
wire. The overall system basically worked. A
threat was detected and that information was
conveyed to the nation's leaders in a timely
fashion. They opted to ignore it. That was
the breakdown: not the laws, but the leaders.

The PATRIOT Act and the across-the-board
ramping up of government surveillance
represent the unneeded new electrical
system. A colossal waste of time and
resources

FBI secretly sought data
on 3,501 people in ’05

Agency ramped up use of approach
that requires no court approval The FBI secretly sought information last year
on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents
from their banks and credit card, telephone
and Internet companies without a court's
approval, the Justice Department said Friday.

It was the first time the Bush administration
has publicly disclosed how often it uses the
administrative subpoena known as a national
security letter, which allows the executive
branch of government to obtain records about
people in terrorism and espionage
investigations without court approval.
April 28, 2006
"This bizarre media firewall has been so
effective that I suspect very few Americans
even realize what the Patriot Act is, i.e., a
collection of amendments to other statutes,
the most significant of which is the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The
primary purpose of the Patriot Act was to
modernize FISA, the same statute that the
President now claims is an out-dated relic
which he has the power to disregard whenever
he deems it "necessary.""

Caught in the Smoke: Employees,
Residents Cope With 9/11 Fallout

Part Two of a Three-Part Series

Senate gives Patriot Act six more months

December 22, 2005
"I fully expect the administration to use the
act to steal databases from companies, and to
sell that data to the competitors of these
companies for RNC contributions.

Databases are hugely valuable. The company
for which I work is very prestigious, and
there are many, many people who would love
to get their hands on our customer database.

They would definitely pay off the RNC to
get their hands on it. Since this is also
a foreign-owned company, it is possible
that it would be more easily excused than
if it were a US company."

Propaganda about the Patriot Act

December 15, 2005
Poll: Info Shrinks Patriot Act Support
August 29, 2005

How Congress Has Assaulted Our
Freedoms in the Patriot Act

...the Patriot Act not only permits the
execution of self-written search warrants on
a host of new subjects, it rejects the
no-criminal-prosecution protections of its
predecessors by requiring evidence obtained
contrary to the Fourth Amendment to be turned
over to prosecutors and mandating that such
evidence is constitutionally competent in
criminal prosecutions.

Once-Lone Foe of Patriot Act Has Company

December 19, 2005

"Enabling" the Patriot Act

June 16, 2005

FBI admits to wiretapping wrong numbers

Patriot Act critics irked by mistakes made
during terrorism investigations

Group foils renewal of Patriot Act

GOP, Democratic lawmakers object.
November 19, 2005

Patriot Act reauthorization stalls

November 18, 2005

Extension of Patriot Act
Faces Threat of Filibuster

November 18, 2005
The court said Congress has given the
president authority to order the jailing of
anyone anywhere for as long as he wishes, as
long as he claims it's connected to the war
on terrorism.
Ottawa Man Deported On Basis Of Secret
Evidence -March 24, 2005

Injustice, in Secret


February 21, 2005

Secret evidence critics lose patience

Muslim- and Arab-Americans say President Bush
hasn't met their expectations and endorsed a
bill to ban the use of classified evidence.
September 1, 2001
Secret Law?
February 21, 2005
Patriot Act Support Shrinks with Increased Info
August 29, 2005
Don’t Tie My Hands While I Torture You
Gonzales Faults Senate Version of Patriot Act
Legislation -August 30, 2005
A Clean Patriot Act
In key respects, however, the Senate bill is
much preferable to the version passed by the
House of Representatives. It retains sunset
provisions for two additional non-Patriot Act
authorities made permanent in the House bill
-- ones that warrant watching over time. It
also contains stronger civil-liberties
protections in a couple of areas.
August 28, 2005
Gonzales Faults Senate Version of Patriot Act
Legislation -August 30, 2005
...the Senate legislation includes tighter
restrictions on the FBI's power to seize
business records and would place a four-year
time limit on two of the law's most
controversial provisions.
THE WRIT OF habeas corpus (Latin for "you
have the body") compels the executive branch
to produce a prisoner and disclose the legal
basis for his or her detention, so the court
may decide whether that detention is
constitutional.

Judge rules against parts of Patriot Act

Senate passes reauthorization of anti-terrorism law

Separate legislation, passed in June in the
House, would end the government’s easy access
to library and bookstore records by making
law enforcement revert to traditional search
warrants.

That measure, attached to a fiscal 2006
spending bill, has drawn a veto threat from
the White House. -July 29, 2005
The House voted Thursday to extend
permanently virtually all the major
antiterrorism provisions of the USA Patriot
Act after beating back efforts by Democrats
and some Republicans to impose new
restrictions on the government's power to
eavesdrop, conduct secret searches and demand
library records.
House votes to make Patriot Act permanent
The U.S. House of Representatives voted
Thursday to make most of the USA Patriot Act
permanent, rejecting attempts to constrict
government surveillance.

The legislation approved in Thursday's vote
would make permanent 14 of the 16 provisions
in the USA Patriot Act set to expire at the
end of this year, The New York Times
reported.
Patriot Act renewed and toughened
The USA Patriot Act was renewed and toughened
today, making permanent the US government's
unprecedented powers to investigate suspected
terrorists. -July 22, 2005
Bush sees London attacks as reason for
Patriot Act -July 21, 2005
Libraries Say Yes, Officials
Do Quiz Them About Users

Law enforcement officials have made at least
200 formal and informal inquiries to
libraries for information on reading material
and other internal matters since October 2001
House Votes To Curb Patriot Act
FBI's Power to Seize Library Records
Would Be Halted June 16, 2005
Bush Urges Congress to
Keep Patriot Act Intact
'Secret' Senate meeting on Patriot Act
Critics say expanded act would let police go
on 'fishing expeditions,' but FBI disagrees.

To date, the act's delayed notice provisions
have been used in less than one-fifth of 1
percent of all federal search warrants.
Officials from the American Civil Liberties
Union, the Open Society Institute and the
Center for Democracy and Technology said in a
telephone conference call the new provisions
to the USA Patriot Act would allow the FBI to
secretly demand medical, tax, gun purchase,
travel and other records without needing to
get approval from a judge.
Canada to counter US Patriot Act data reporting
February 1, 2005
Legislation would give FBI power to monitor mail
May 27, 2005
Early Version of New Patriot Act Gives
Administration Everything It Asks for, GOP
Aides Say--May 18, 2005
Reform the Patriot Act to ensure civil liberties
April 20, 2005
PATRIOT Act Should Ride Into the Sunset
by Rep. Ron Paul --May 3, 2005
It is precisely because the Patriot Act is so
deeply implicated in wider human rights
abuses that mere technical fixes are not
enough.
MSNBC: Should Congress renew the Patriot
Act provisions set to expire soon?
FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday asked
lawmakers to expand the bureau’s ability to
obtain records without first asking a judge,
and he joined Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales in seeking that every temporary
provision of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act
be renewed. --April 5, 2005
http://www.checksbalances.org
John Ashcroft's legacy as attorney general
included preventing the Senate from seeing
documents that might have shed light on the
actions of the new attorney general, Alberto
Gonzales, and on Homeland Security chief
Michael Chertoff.
The Patriot Act requires ISPs and any other
type of communications provider--including
telephone companies--to comply with secret
"national security letters" (NSLs) from
the FBI.

Those letters can ask for information about
subscribers, including home addresses, what
telephone calls were made, email subject
lines and logs of what websites were visited.
As the nation prepares for President Bush's
inauguration next week, privacy activists on
both sides of the political spectrum are
bracing for a White House push to augment
controversial domestic surveillance powers
gained under the Patriot Act and other
legislation passed since 9/11.
Should the US Military Be
Allowed to Torture People?
Members of Congress who objected to voting on
legislation without first reading it amended
the Patriot Act to include a “trigger”
which provided that, upon the request of any
member of Congress, the debate that never
took place before voting would commence
sometime afterward.

When Congress adopted the Intelligence Reform
Act, it secretly squeezed in what I refer to
as an addendum to the Patriot Act, also
without debate, by making changes to elements
of the 2001 Patriot Act.
Conyers Says Justice Department
Cannot Verify Patriot Act Claims
SECTION 102 of the new Patriot Act II states
clearly that any information gathering,
regardless of whether or not those activities
are illegal, can be considered to be
clandestine intelligence activities for a
foreign power. This makes news gathering
illegal.
The Revolution of 1800
and the USA PATRIOT Act
House May Revive Parts of Patriot Act II
Critics of the Patriot Act argued that even
without it, investigators can get book store
and other records simply by obtaining
subpoenas or search warrants. Those
traditional investigative tools are harder to
get from grand juries or courts than orders
issued under the Patriot Act, which do not
require authorities to show probable cause.
Ronson talked to Christopher Cerf, the
composer for the children’s show Sesame
Street for the last 25 years. Fuelled by
reports that his songs were being used on
Iraqi prisoners, Cerf joked that he should be
getting royalties for each interrogation.
After 9/11, the word of the president was
supposedly the only protection that the
rights and liberties of the American people
needed. After 9/11, President Bush granted
himself unlimited, unchecked power over
anyone in the world suspected of being a
terrorist.
Patriot Act squeezes banks,
customers with paperwork
Presidential push fails to quell
GOP fear of Patriot Act

Prevarications About the Patriot Act

Any American citizen who leaves or enters
the U.S. with more than $10,000 of their own
money risks having his money confiscated and
being sent to prison for as long as five
years. According to Bovard, U.S. Customs has
used this provision in the Patriot Act to
confiscate the money of more than 600
travellers, very few of which had any
plausible connection at all to terrorism.
Lawmakers Not Rushing to Extend USAPATRIOT
Sadly, this is hardly the first time such
legislation has been misused. For instance, a
September 27 New York Times article, which
was based on a DOJ report, detailed literally
hundreds of non-terrorism cases for which the
USA PATRIOT Act had been used to prosecute
drug cases, murder investigations, money
smuggling/laundering and document forgery.

USAPATRIOT II

"Section 312 would revoke laws that
prohibit police from spying on citizens
without substantive evidence of criminal
activity."

Patriot Act II

Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping
Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
'The "Patriot Act" is not what American
patriots have fought and died for. To allow
our Bill of Rights to be nullified without
judicial supervision invites tyranny. The
Attorney General has been handed unfettered
power to wiretap, search, jail, and invade
our most sacred right to privacy. The
government must not be allowed, without
probable cause or warrant, to snoop on our
communications, medical records, library
records, and student records.'
Acting at the Bush administration's behest, a
joint House-Senate conference committee has
approved a provision in the 2004 Intelligence
Authorization bill that will permit the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to
demand records from a number of
businesses--without the approval of a judge
or grand jury--if it deems them relevant to a
counter-terrorism investigation.
And what if the protester wouldn't comply?
That would be a Class A misdemeanor,
punishable by up to one year in prison and a
$100,000 fine. Anyway, the protester's
refusing to give up DNA might be futile - if
any other government agency happens to have a
blood sample, Patriot II gives the government
the right to put it in the new database.

Incredibly, DNA would also be collected from
anyone who is, or has been, on probation for
any crime, no matter how minor. State
governments would be required to collect DNA
samples from state probationers and provide
them to the federal government.

September 4, 2003
Penned, Trapped

The absurd claim that PATRIOT
increases your privacy

Nick Gillespie

High treason in the U.S. government

July 04, 2002
- Doreen Miller
U.S. government officials would have us
believe that this 342-page, complexly nuanced
document was allegedly crafted after
September 11 in the time span of a little
over a month. To accomplish this feat would
have required the in-depth study of fifteen
other lengthy acts and statutes which it
modifies and amends.

The "Victory" Act
The proposed database grants law enforcement
agencies unprecedented access to private
genetic information, allowing investigators
to seize DNA samples from people merely
suspected of participating in a broad number
of activities that qualify as domestic
terrorism, a new crime that was ushered in by
the original Patriot Act.
A Grave Assault on the Constitution
November 15, 2001

"It is one of the scariest documents I've ever read.

According to the order, Bush can label any
person who is not a citizen of the United
States a terrorist. He can then have the
Pentagon haul this alleged terrorist before a
secret military tribunal.

The Secretary of Defense gets to designate
where the trial will take place, "outside or
within the United States."

The Secretary of the Defense also sets the
rules for the trial, including "modes of
proof."

Any evidence can be introduced that has
"probative value to a reasonable person."
It's conceivable that such evidence could
include hearsay and confessions extracted
under duress.

The Secretary of Defense also decides upon
"qualifications of attorneys," so defendants
may not have lawyers of their choosing.

Conviction and sentencing require not
unanimity of the military judges but
"two-thirds of the commission present at the
time of the vote, a majority being present."

The sentence can include "life imprisonment
or death."

There appears to be no appeal process.
"Submission of the record of the trial,
including any conviction or sentence, for
review and final decision by me or by the
Secretary of Defense if so designated by me
for that purpose," the order said. "Me" means
Bush.

This is how Peru works, not the United States!"

'In Europe, data protection laws allow
information to be used only for the purpose
for which it is collected. America has no
such laws.'
As attorney Jonathan Freiman's brief to the
Second Circuit--for a coalition of
prominent civil liberties
organizations--says in Padilla v. Rumsfeld,
Bush's commander-in-chief argument "would
give every President the unchecked power to
detain, without charge and forever, all
citizens it chooses to label as 'enemy
combatants.' "
Detroit News September 15, 2003
The PATRIOT Act's Assault
on the Bill of Rights
By Brigid O'Neil
The troublesome provisions proposed by
Reagan and the first Bush included the
resurrection of guilt by association,
association as grounds for exclusion or
deportation, the ban on supporting
lawful activities of groups labeled
terrorist, the use of secret evidence,
and the empowerment of the Secretary of
State to designate groups as terrorist
organizations, without judicial or
congressional review.

Patriot Raid

by Jason Halperin
"I most certainly understand that we are at
war. I also understand that the freedoms
afforded to all of us in the constitution
were meant specifically for times like
these. Our freedoms were carved out during
times of strife by people who were facing
brutal injustices, and were intended
specifically so that this nation would behave
differently in such times. If our freedoms
crumble exactly when they are needed most,
then they were really never freedoms at all."

Blue Triangle Fact Sheet

Patriot II: The Sequel

Why It's Even Scarier than the First Patriot Act
By Anita Ramasastry
March 30, 2003

Get Ready for PATRIOT II

By Matt Welch, AlterNet
April 2, 2003

Domestic Security Enhancement of 2003

A.K.A. PATRIOT II

Republicans Want Terror
Law Made Permanent

By Eric Lichtblau
Washington, April 8
Analysis of USAPATRIOT Act
by Center for Democracy
and Technology and Others
The USA PATRIOT Act
Electronic Privacy Information Center
EFF Analysis Of The Provisions
Of The USA PATRIOT Act That Relate
To Online Activities (Oct 31, 2001)
Ashcroft's unlawful rule

Attorney General John Ashcroft wants to
shatter attorney-client privilege,
constitutionally protected by the Sixth
Amendment, at his discretion.

St. Petersburg Times,
November 15, 2001
A Grave Assault on the Constitution

Matthew Rothschild
Editor of The Progressive
November 15, 2001

Signs of a Police
State are Everywhere

James Petras
Z Magazine
2 January, 2002
University bans controversial links
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 25, 2002, 4:13 PM PT

The University of California at San Diego has
ordered a student organization to delete
hyperlinks to an alleged terrorist Web site,
citing the recently enacted USA Patriot Act.

'Material support is defined as money, lodging,
training or "communications equipment."'
Overview of Changes to Legal Rights
By The Associated Press

September 5, 2002

Much evidence stays secret


Fighting deportation, the ex-USF instructor
continues a battle to learn why he was jailed
for more than three years.
July 16, 2001
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