The Patriot Act II; scary, and now law
By Oli
At 6:53 PM · Friday, 2 January · 2004
To Life
George Dubya Bush has signed into law the Patriot Act II, and I’m so glad it doesn’t apply to me.
Just to recap, the Patriot Act II allows US Security Forces (eg the FBI) to demand records of “financial institutions” via “National Security letters” without requiring a court order or ‘probable cause’, and with no judicial oversight. The demand is also a gag order, forbidding the “financial institution” from notifying the client being investigated. “Financial institution” can be any company that has a financial link to the investigated person. Finally there is no congressional oversight either.
Even more scary is how this bill (which was strongly opposed) became law with so little debate:
On December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team, but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI sweeping new powers. By signing the bill on the day of Hussein’s capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote.
The Bush Administration and its Congressional allies tucked away these new executive powers in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. The Act included a simple, yet insidious, redefinition of “financial institution,” which previously referred to banks, but now includes any business “whose cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory matters.”
By attaching the redefinition of “financial institution” to an Intelligence Authorization Act, the Bush Administration and its Congressional allies avoided public hearings and floor debates for the expansion of the Patriot Act.
More on this from the EFF (EFF Analysis of “Patriot II”) and the ACLU (Patriot Act summary). What happened to the ideals that the USA used to be founded on and stand for? Given the USA intelligence community’s involvement in so much terrorism (Kennedy assassinations, Iran-Contras, Bay of Pigs…) do Americans feel safer with this massive increase in FBI power? What about George Dubya Bush’s direct connections with the Bin Laden family and big oil? Why isn’t any of this in the mainstream media? Scary stuff.
