Patriot Act *breaking news*

[SteveAustin]

Its not that the citizens are blind towards the government...its more like they are pleasantly distracted. God bless commercialism.

[imported_dowmagik]

is peltier still locked up?

[villain]

damn leonard peltier is still locked up?

free leonard!

free mumia!

[robJ]

bump,

[angelofdeath]

fuck michael moore, fuck the patriot act, and fuck mumia.

 

[Herbivore]

Thought this was kind of interesting... in a shitty way. Didn't want to make a whole new thread about it.

 

source

 

Patriot Act deal could curb some FBI powers

 

Pre-dawn agreement may also make provisions of expiring law permanent

 

Updated: 2:08 p.m. ET Nov. 16, 2005

WASHINGTON - House and Senate negotiators struck a tentative deal on the expiring Patriot Act that would curb FBI subpoena power and require the Justice Department to more fully report its secret requests for information about ordinary people, according to officials involved in the talks.

 

The agreement, which would make most provisions of the existing law permanent, was reached just before dawn Wednesday.

 

But by mid-morning GOP leaders had already made plans for a House vote on Thursday and a Senate vote by the end of the week.

 

That would put the centerpiece of President Bush's war on terror on his desk before Thanksgiving, more than month before a dozen provisions were set to expire.

 

Officials negotiating the deal described it on condition of anonymity because the draft is not official and has not been signed by any of the 34 conferees.

 

Any deal would mark Congress' first revision of the law passed a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

 

In doing so, lawmakers said they tried to find the nation's comfort level with expanded law enforcement power in the post-9/11 era — a task that carries extra political risks for all 435 members of the House and a third of the Senate facing midterm elections next year.

 

Sensitive time

For Bush, too, such a renewal would come at a sensitive time.

 

With his approval ratings slipping in his second term, the president could bolster a tough-on-terrorism image.

 

The tentative deal would make permanent all but a handful of the expiring provisions, the sources said.

 

Others would expire in seven years if not renewed by Congress.

 

They include rules on wiretapping, obtaining business records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and new standards for monitoring "lone wolf" terrorists who may be operating independent of a foreign agent or power.

 

The draft also would impose a new requirement that the Justice Department report to Congress annually on its use of national security letters, secret requests for the phone, business and Internet records of ordinary people.

 

The aggregate number of letters issued per year, reported to be about 30,000, is classified.

 

'Relevant' records

Citing confidential investigations, the Justice Department has refused lawmakers' request for the information.

 

The 2001 Patriot Act removed the requirement that the records sought be those of someone under suspicion.

 

As a result, FBI agents can review the digital records of a citizen as long as the bureau can certify that the person's records are "relevant" to a terrorist investigation.

 

Also part of the tentative agreement are modest new requirements on so-called roving wiretaps — monitoring devices placed on a single person's telephones and other devices to keep a target from evading law enforcement officials by switching phones or computers.

 

The tentative deal also would raise the threshold for securing business records under FISA, requiring law enforcement to submit a "statement of facts" showing "reasonable grounds to believe the records are relevant to an investigation.

 

Law enforcement officials also would have to show that an individual is in contact with or known to be in contact with a suspected agent of a foreign power.