Patriot Act
The Patriot Act inverts the constitutional requirement that people's lives be private and the work of government officials be public; it instead crafts a set of conditions in which our inner lives become transparent and the workings of the government become opaque. Either one of these outcomes would imperil democracy; together they not only injure the country but also cut off the avenues of repair. Elaine Scarry
Both Senator Leahy and Senator Daschle were in positions capable of blocking the neo-Nazi PATRIOT Act. Both senators had negotiated with the Bush regime changes in the act that made it less tyrannical. However, the changes were not in the final draft of the act sent to Congress. Consequently, Leahy and Daschle were resisting the rush to passage. I have often wondered if Leahy and Daschle understood the anthrax letters to be Washington’s warning: “Get out of the way of Tyranny or we will kill you.” Paul Craig Roberts (4/18/2015)
Handing Trump 'Terrifying Authoritarian Surveillance Powers,' House Democrats Include Patriot Act Reauthorization in Funding Bill (11/19/2019)
How to Shine a Light on U.S. Government Surveillance of Americans (2/6/2019)
Debunking the Patriot Act as It Turns 15 (10/26/2016)
Tell Congress
to Put an Expiration Date on Unconstitutional Bulk Surveillance
(2/2015)
Repeal
the Patriot Act (6/19/2013)
Myths and Realities About the Patriot Act
How
the Patriot Act Stripped Me of My Free Speech Rights (10/25/2011)
Congress Reauthorizes the Patriot Act, Sidesteps Privacy Concerns. (2/26/2010)
When the FBI showed up with a national security letter for librarians to turn over their records, a great many probably complied. Apparently the number of such letters was in the thousands. Connecticut librarians should be congratulated. In spite of a gag order (they could tell no one about it) they heroically challenged the Patriot Act.
According to the
Washington Post, "The House and Senate have voted to make
noncompliance with a national security letter a criminal offense.
The House would also impose a prison term for breach of
secrecy."
Considering that telephone companies have, without apparent question, turned over their records to government data miners, internet search records have mostly been made available without a whimper, that commercial transactions are routinely monitored, that a fairly incompetent 'no fly' list harasses airline passengers, say goodbye to the Bill of Rights.
A number of communities have rejected the Patriot Act.
Chuck Baldwin on the US Police State.
see EFF comments on the 'Patriot Act'.
sign your name to the campaign to repeal part of the U.S.A. P.A.T. R.I.O.T. Act. This would make the police once again have to get search warrants before they can get information from bookstores or libraries about what you have read or borrowed.
This is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough. The PATRIOT act was extended in December 2003 to give the police equally easy access to many kinds of transaction records about you. The PATRIOT act attacks your freedom in other ways, too. See http://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/.
Leading Human Rights Groups Name 39 CIA ‘Disappeared’ Detainees
Do people you talk to not know the Bush regime has made torture
and secret detention legal?
Send them this report from the Center for Constitutional
Rights, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.