Re: U.S. Senate Blocks Patriot Act Renewal

[Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu>]

--On Friday, December 16, 2005 16:38:17 -0500 Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu wrote:
> You're obviously too young to remember the FBI conducting totally illegal
> spying on Martin Luther King Jr. and other people on the president's
> "enemies list".
I'm not.

> If you were a *true* conservative, you'd be asking why the government
> needs the ability to go into essentially *any* place of business
> (including your bank, the library, and anyplace else that you've
> exchanged money or ID with), and look at your records, with the following:
>
> 1) No judicial oversight. Subpoenas? Warrants? Who needs those?

This is false.  The only part of the Patriot Act that doesn't mandate 
judicial oversight is section 501, which has to do with payments authorized 
by the US Attorney General of rewards (like the $25 million for Saddam.) 
The rest of the act requires judicial approval before they can obtain 
anyone's records.

> 2) No need to indicate that any wrongdoing at all is suspected. Fishing
> expeditions hoping to find dirt are totally OK.

Again, false.  They must show, to a judge, that there is a connection to an 
ongoing or beginning terrorism investigation.

> 3) It's a felony for the person presented with the request to admit that
> the request was ever made.
So?

> So - since you obviously don't mind that, care to post *everything* you've
> ever checked out of a library? Including anything that might land you on
> some "enemy of the state" list?  Ever read any Ayn Rand?  And so on...

The library claim is a canard.  Libraries aren't even mentioned in the 
Patriot Act.  I challenge you to find it.  The Patriot Act amended the 
Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act of 1978 (as well as the USA Act 
of 2001, which also amended FISA) to give the government the *same* 
abilities that they *already* have for organized crime investigations in 
terrorism investigations.  No one has yet found a single instance where the 
act was used improperly or illegally (all bluster to the contrary.)

You have to be really paranoid to think that it makes sense to tell someone 
who is potentially a terrorist that they are being investigated just you 
can protect your "civil rights".  Do you think the government warns Mafia 
members that their lines are tapped?  Why didn't anyone complain about that?

People should actually read the damn thing before making claims about what 
it does or doesn't do.  Go to thomas.loc.gov and read Public Law 107-56. 
<http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ056.107>

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/
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