In the early months after the 9/11 terror attacks, America’s visceral reaction was to gird for a relentless, whatever-it-takes quest to punish those responsible and prevent any recurrences.
To a striking extent, those goals have been achieved. Yet over the years, Americans have also learned about trade-offs, about decisions and practices that placed national security on a higher plane than civil liberties and, in the view of some, above the rule of law.
* * * * *It’s by no means the first time in U.S. history that security concerns spawned tactics that, when brought to light, troubled Americans. But the past decade has been notable, even in historical context, for the scope and durability of boundary-pushing practices.
Abroad, there were secret prisons and renditions of terror suspects, the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques that critics denounced as torture, and the egregious abuse of detainees by U.S. military personnel at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere.
At home, there has been widespread warrantless wiretapping authorized by the National Security Agency and the issuance of more than 200,000 national security letters ordering an array of Americans — including business owners and librarians — to turn over confidential records.
As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, many Americans have unfortunately had a casual disregard for infringements on our civil liberties that have occured since that fateful day.
The most glaring examples of government abuses include the TSA, warrantless wiretaps and searches, and the violations of financial and personal privacy by the PATRIOT Act.
But there are also smaller and creeping threats to civil liberties that have not surfaced, but threaten to radically change basic constitutional protections in America. The Department of Justice recently arrested and indicted Jubair Ahmad, a 24-year-old Pakistani legal resident living in Virginia, for the dangerously vague crime of “providing material support” to a designated terrorist organization. Ahmad uploaded a YouTube video showing Abu Ghraib photos, U.S. Iraqi war footage, and Islamic prayers. For this, he faces more than twenty years in prison.
Minutes before a midnight deadline, President Barack Obama signed into law a four-year extension of post-Sept. 11 powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists.
“It’s an important tool for us to continue dealing with an ongoing terrorist threat,” Obama said Friday after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
With Obama in France, the White House said the president used an autopen machine that holds a pen and signs his actual signature. It is only used with proper authorization of the president.
Congress sent the bill to the president with only hours to go on Thursday before the provisions expired at midnight. Votes taken in rapid succession in the Senate and House came after lawmakers rejected attempts to temper the law enforcement powers to ensure that individual liberties are not abused.
The Senate voted 72-23 for the legislation to renew three terrorism-fighting authorities. The House passed the measure 250-153 on an evening vote.
A short-term expiration would not have interrupted ongoing operations but would have barred the government from seeking warrants for new investigations.
Congress bumped up against the deadline mainly because of the stubborn resistance from a single senator, Republican freshman Rand Paul of Kentucky, who saw the terrorist-hunting powers as an abuse of privacy rights. Paul held up the final vote for several days while he demanded a chance to change the bill to diminish the government’s ability to monitor individual actions.
by Layllah Therion source: Technorati May 29, 2011
American freedom just suffered two heartbreaking defeats in the span of two days. Yesterday President Obama signed the Patriot Act extension ensuring the FBI will go right on spying and tapping Americans communications. Two days ago the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the IP Protect Act which will allow the government to block websites and search engines accused of “copyright infringement”.
I write this with a heavy heart and tears welling in my eyes. The country I was born and raised in has become a foreign nation overnight. Innocent until proven guilty died a very undignified death, and censorship has rooted itself in virgin territory.
Melodramatic, not if you enjoy reading non-government subsidized media or surfing underground sites. The road to “Big Brother’s” White-house is awash with the blood of our fellow citizens who now have died for an America relegated to the past.
Osama Bin Ladens death doesn’t seem like much of a victory in light of the Patriot Act extension; buying money orders at the bank is still out of the question if you don’t deposit matching funds. I never really understood that aspect of the Patriot Act. How many terrorists buy money orders? Does the average black market arms dealer prefer a traceable check over cash? The track ability is why I like to pay my bills with them, it avoids that annoying phone call from the utility company claiming they didn’t get my payment when in actuality they got it, cashed it, and lost it!
The digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced Thursday it had discovered violations stemming from the FBI’s use of expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.
Documents obtained by the group as the result of pending Freedom of Information Act litigation suggest that abuses of surveillance powers granted by the PATRIOT Act had been flagged by the FBI.
President Obama on Friday signed into law a bill that extends three Patriot Act surveillance authorities until late May.
Obama signed the “FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011,” which refers to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Surveillance authorities under that act were extended in part by amending the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act.
With Obama’s signature, the ability of the United States to access business records, conduct roving wiretaps and monitor individual terrorists is maintained until May 27. The administration has said it supports a longer extension, and the Senate next week will begin working on a three-year extension.
The US House of Representatives voted Monday to extend controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.
The bill, known as HR 514, will now head to the Senate, which already has three bills of its own pending.
Rep. Nadler (who helped author and pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill) voiced opposition to the Bill:
“I cannot support this extension when the House has done nothing to consider these provisions, or possible reforms, or even to hold a hearing or a markup,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said on the House floor Monday. “While in the past, Members have had the opportunity to receive classified briefings, we have dozens of new Members who have received no such briefings.”
In a busy schedule 2 days ago had started to write this..I could not finish it until today though. In the time that passed, a similar piece was written by Steve and Paul Watson. I recommend it if this piece interests you.
In perfect timing, Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano said thison Wednesday:
“….. the threat today may be at its most heightened state since the attacks nearly 10 years ago.”
“We understand full well that Islamist-inspired, Al-Qaeda-inspired, however you want to call it, terrorism, be it coming from abroad or now being homegrown, is part and parcel of the security picture that we now have to deal with in the United States…”
A plan that would have seen the House of Representatives extend controversial provisions of the PATRIOTAct with little debate failed Tuesday night, as a group of Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in voting no.
The House voted 277 to 148 for the PATRIOT Act extension — 23 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass it under a procedure that allows bills that aren’t controversial to pass quickly.
Top Senate Republicans called Friday for the three powers to be made permanent — a step rejected in the original law in favor of “sunsets” to ensure regular reviews by Congress to ferret out possible abuse.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said doing so would give US intelligence and law enforcement officials “the highest degree of operational certainty that’s practicable.”
The week of February the 22nd through the 28th regarding news relating to 9/11, summarized.
The ripple effects of the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth press conference are continuing to be seen. (Last weeks news here.) The Washington Times carried an article entitled “Explosive News“, regarding the questions that AE911Truth brings to the table. The Examiner is another outlet that carried the AE911Truth press conference. Canadian and Russian have picked up on the story of over 1000 architects and engineers calling for a new investigation into 9/11 as well.
It has only been 1 week since the conference announcing the 1,000 and they’re already at 1,080 architects and engineers! (Probably more by the time I’m done writing this. ) One observant fellow noticed that in the 18 days of February before the conference 23 architects or engineers were added to the list, while in the 10 days of February after the conference 38 newly verified architects or engineers signed on for a new investigation. That is some good news!
Democrats have retreated from adding new privacy protections to the primary U.S counterterrorism law, stymied by Senate Republicans who argued the changes would weaken terror investigations.
The proposed protections were cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote supermajority to pass them. Dashing the hopes of liberals, the Senate Wednesday night instead passed — by voice vote without debate — a one-year extension of key parts of the USA Patriot Act that would have expired on Sunday.
Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.
Posted by Brian 
