President Obama Wants To Keep Provisions In The Patriot Act!

At the risk of alienating supporters of President Obama, I'm a little concerned with the fact he has called upon Congress to reauthorize the expiring provisions in The Patriot Act. Remember, it was candidate Obama who criticized The Patriot Act and promised, if elected, to reform it.

In fact, President Obama has endorsed and adopted as his own policies, those questionable policies of former President BushPresident Bush, including: prolonged detention without charges, and surveillances of Americans without warrants or "probable cause." What is most disturbing to me is that President Obama has indicated, in past speeches at town hall meetings, he may even go further, requesting new powers to arrest and detain people without charges, a direct violation of the Constitution.

Both House and Senate are set to hold their first committee hearings this week on whether to reauthorize three sections of The Patriot Act that are scheduled to expire at the end of this year. These are the provisions that expanded the power of the F.B.I. to seize records and to eavesdrop on phone calls in the source of counterterrorism investigations.

As our legislators take up this matter, Suzanne E. Spaulding, a former staffer on the House and the Senate Intelligence committees warned that the rapid build-up of domestic intelligence authorities after the 9/11 attacks have overlooked safeguards, which has resulted "in a greater likelihood at a minimum of the government mistakenly intruding into the privacy of innocent Americans, and at worst having a greater capability of abusing these authorities."

The three provisions to be considered for reauthorization are:

1. A provision that allows investigators to get "roving wiretap" court orders authorizing them to follow a target who switches phone numbers or phone companies, rather than having to apply for a new warrant each time.

2. A provision that allows the F.B.I. to get a court order to seize "any tangible things" deemed relevant to terrorism investigation - like a business's customer records, a diary or computer.

3. A provision called the "lone wolf" provision. It allows the F.B.I. to get a court order to wiretap a terrorism suspect who is not connected to any foreign terrorist group or foreign government.

So you're asking, if the Feds have to get a court order to do any of this, what's the problem? The problem for me is, under the provisions of The Patriot Act, anyone can be considered a terrorist and thus be subject to just about any kind of unwarranted surveillance. I believe the Feds have to be required to have much stronger evidence of meaningful links between a terrorism suspect and the person whom investigators are targeting in order to get a warrant.

As Senator Russ FeingoldRuss Feingold stated, "Every single member of Congress wants to give our law enforcement and intelligence officials the tools they need to keep Americans safe. But with The Patriot Act up for reauthorization, we should take this opportunity to fix the flaws in our surveillance laws once and for all."