"authority to access business records, as well as to monitor so-called lone wolf terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps"
Some change!
"Obama wants to keep 3 powers set to expire in Patriot Act; Wiretaps, access to business data still upset critics" by Devlin Barrett, Associated Press | September 16, 2009
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public yesterday.
Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law’s authority to access business records, as well as to monitor so-called lone wolf terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.
The provision on business records was long criticized by rights groups as giving the government access to citizens’ library records, and a coalition of liberal and conservative groups complained that the Patriot Act gives the government too much authority to snoop into Americans’ private lives.
The SEED of our SALVATION if Americans would only see it!
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law. In May, as president, he said legal institutions must be updated to deal with the threat of terrorism....
Related: Obama to Refine Bush-Era Torture Techniques
In a letter to lawmakers, Justice Department officials said the administration supports extending the three expiring provisions of the law, but is willing to consider stronger civil rights protections in the new law “provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness’’ of the law’s other provisions....
The “lone wolf’’ provision was created to conduct surveillance on suspects with no known link to foreign governments or terrorist groups. It has never been used....
Yeah, right, just because government and media say they didn't use it, you do not expect me to believe that, do you?
--more--"
Also see:
The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Blackening Out Blackwater Assassins
The Boston Globe Bucks Up the CIA
Yeah, but those death squads were never "fully operational."
"Senators’ Patriot Act ‘fix’ would eliminate telecom immunity
A group of US Senators unveiled legislation Thursday aiming to strip telecommunications firms that took part in a hugely controversial Bush-era spying program of immunity from lawsuits.
The bill aims to “fix problems with surveillance laws that threaten the rights and liberties of American citizens” without crippling the government’s ability to track suspected terrorists, the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
The legislation would affect the way the US government can search Americans’ personal records, conduct wiretapping, and otherwise collect and use information on US citizens."
