[e-privacy] (fwd) Senate Gives FBI More Patriot Act Power

[George Orwell]

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Message-ID: <6H4LB3XZ38511.7911689815 at reece.net.au>
From: Bloated Tick <ugh at squishme.com>
Newsgroups: alt.privacy,alt.privacy.anon-server
Subject: Senate Gives FBI More Patriot Act Power
Date: 8 Jun 2005 11:14:16 -0000

Senate Gives FBI More Patriot Act Power
Jun 7, 10:59 PM (ET)
By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI would get expanded powers to subpoena records
without the approval of a judge or grand jury in terrorism investigations
under Patriot Act revisions approved Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence
Committee.

Some senators who voted 11-4 to move the bill forward said they would push
for limits on the new powers the measure would grant to law enforcement
agencies.

"This bill must be amended on the floor to protect national security while
protecting Constitutional rights," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

Ranking Democrat Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., supported the bill overall but
said he would push for limits that would allow such administrative
subpoenas "only if immediacy dictates."

Rockefeller and other committee members, such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
D-Calif., also are concerned that the bill would grant powers to federal
law enforcement agencies that could be used in criminal inquiries rather
than intelligence-gathering ones.

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the bill places new checks and
balances on the powers it would grant, such as new procedures that would
allow people to challenge such administrative orders. He called the Patriot
Act "a vital tool in the war on terror" and lauded the Democrats who voted
for it in spite of misgivings.

Portions of the Patriot Act - signed into law six weeks after the Sept. 11
attacks - are set to expire at the end of 2005. The bill would renew and
expand the act.

The bill also must be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee, where
Feinstein and other Democrats planned to again offer amendments.

Overall, Rockefeller said, the committee gave a nod to most of the Patriot
Act in its first few years fighting the nation's new enemies.

"We concluded that these tools have helped keep America safe ... and should
be made permanent," Rockefeller said in a statement.

Still, civil libertarians panned the bill and the closed-door meetings in
which it was written.

"When lawmakers seek to rewrite our Fourth Amendment rights, they should at
least have the gumption to do so in public," said Lisa Graves, the ACLU's
senior counsel for legislative strategy. "Americans have a reasonable
expectation that their federal government will not gather records about
their health, their wealth and the transactions of their daily life without
probable cause of a crime and without a court order."

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20050608/D8AJ5UB80.html


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