Preserving Life & Liberty

This site was created by the US Department of Justice to support the USA PATRIOT Act as more and more American citizens, politicians, and organizations have gotten their heads out of their asses and seen the Act for what it really is. The Life and Liberty website makes the case that the USA PATRIOT Act is in fact a beautiful and wonderful piece of legislation that gets the bad guys without trampling the rights of everyone else.

Simply put, this site is at best misleading, if not absolute, baldfaced lying. Let's look at the claims on the main page.

It starts by writing out the title of the USA Patriot Act in full: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism."

Then it says that Congress enacted the Patriot Act with overwhelming bipartisan margins... Yes, that is true, however, Congress never had the chance to actually read the bill, as I wrote in my last post. Further, it no longer enjoys such support from Congress.

Section 1 says that "The Patriot Act allows investigators to use teh tools that were already available to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking." PARTLY TRUE. While the USA PATRIOT Act does grant counter-terrorism efforts some powers that already existed, the difference is that under the USA PATRIOT Act, in many cases, the government either doesn't need to get a warrant or does not allow judges to reject warrant applications. Warrants aren't worth anything if they must automatically be approved upon request, as provisions of the Patriot Act demand. One example of this is in a subsection of section 1: "Allows federal agents to ask a court for an order to obtain business records in national security terrorism cases." The government site says that the government can ask a federal court to order records be turned over to the government so long as they are sought for an authorized investigation. HALF TRUE. The half they aren't telling anyone here is that so long as a government agent says that the record is sought for an authorized investigation, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (whose workings are secret, hearings are secret, names of judges are secret, locations are secret, and only have the government's lawyers appear before them) are REQUIRED to issue the order. There is no judicial discretion, the court cannot even evaluate the claim that the record is sought for an authorized investigation. While the propaganda site of lifeandliberty.gov may claim that the information is not sought solely on the basis of First Amendment activities, there is zero oversight to ensure that this is the case, because as soon as the words "this is sought for an ongoing investigation" are uttered by an agent to the FISA court, the court MUST issue the order requested by the government.

Section 2 says "The Patriot Act facilitated information sharing and cooperation among governmental agencies so that they can better 'connect the dots.' The Act removed the major legal barriers that prevented the law enforcement, intelligence, and national defense communities from talking and coordinating their work to protect the American people and our national security." MAJOR PIECE OF INFORMATION MISSING. The barriers that prevented law enforcment, intelligence, and national defense communities were put in place after the Church Committee (Congressional Committee) found that the domestic spying capabilities were being grossly abused. The FBI CONTEL program, the spying (and FBI attempt to discredit) Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists, and other such abuses led to Congress stripping away some of the intelligence/national defense communities' powers. Now, John Ashcroft rides into the picture on a white horse, saying that it is absurd to not let the government agencies have these powers so they can "connect the dots" and promises that the powers will not be abused. Well, Mr. Ashcroft, the government agencies LOST the powers because they WERE abused.

Section 3, "allows law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant anywhere a terrorist-related activity occurs" claims that the "provision does not change the standards governing the availability of a search warrant..." TRUE. However, it does allow the government to forum shop, looking for a friendly judge anywhere in the United States, so if Judge X in California is generally more willing to grant warrants that Judge Y in Massachusetts, the FBI can get a warrant for California's Judge X for a search in Boston. Drug investigations and mafia investigations also span a number of districts and thus multiple warrants in multiple jurisdictions are required. This remains unchanged and nobody talks about changing it. If Mr. Ashcroft wants to compare drug and mafia investigations with terrorism investigations, it shouldn't be done only when it is convenient such as in section 1.

Section 4 is the only piece of this website that I have no problem with--it discusses the increased penalties for those who commit terrorist crimes. That is reasonable, that is fair, and moreover, this section tells the whole truth (and is the only section of this website to do so).

NOW, let's move onto a subpage of this website--"Dispelling the Myths." The site says that there is a myth that the Patriot Act could subject political organizations to surveillance, wiretapping, harassment, and criminal action for political advocacy and that peaceful groups that dissent from government policy could be treated as domestic terrorists. It claims the reality is that Peaceful groups that dissent from government policy without breaking laws cannot be targeted and that the Patriot Act limits domestic terrorism to conduct that breaks laws and endangers human life.

This "reality" is actually a myth. Peaceful groups CAN be targeted. The protests at Puerto Rico's Vieques Island is an example of peaceful protest that could be found to be domestic terrorism under the Patriot Act's definition. It breaks the law, and since Vieques Island has live fire exercises and armed sentries, any protests that tresspass onto Federal property could be argued (and has been argued!) to endanger human life.

The next "myth" is that the government can monitor people's library habits. The "reality" according to the Government site, is that "The Patriot Act specifically protects Americans' First Amendment rights, and terrorism investigators have no interest in the library habits of ordinary Americans...The Patriot Act ensures that business records--whether from a library or any other business--can be obtained in national security investigations with the permission of a federal judge." BULLSHIT. The reality is that federal judges are REQUIRED to give their "permission" under the USA PATRIOT Act and are NOT allowed to make any determination of facts. Again, if the government claims that the record is needed as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, the record must be turned over, even if the subject of the record is not the target of the investigation, and the judge HAS NO OPTION TO TURN DOWN THE "REQUEST". Let's be honest--it's not a request--it's a demand. Further, the "terrorism investigators have no interest in the library habits of ordinary Americans?" Tell that to the Church Committee.

In short, www.lifeandliberty.gov is full of lies and half truths designed to try to drum up support for what is probably the worst piece of legislation that has been passed and signed in a very long time.

Further, despite repeated claims by Mr. Ashcroft that there is not a Patriot Act II or anything else on the horizon (and once the Patriot Act II was leaked to the media, he claimed that was merely a draft that was being "discussed internally"), today ABC News issued a report on the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003 (or VICTORY ACT--who comes up with these names, anyway?!) (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WorldNewsTonight/victory_act030820.html) that would give law enforcment the authority to ISSUE SUBPEONAS ON THEIR OWN--NO JUDGE--that would REQUIRE a person suspected on money laundering to turn over financial records AND APPEAR IN A PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS--have they ever heard of the 4th and 5th Amendments? Require people to appear in a prosecutor's office to answer questions? I think not!

In summary, the Ashcroft Department of Justice is trying to claim that they are protecting civil liberties while going after terrorists, and that ordinary Americans will not be effected. In truth, there is no judicial oversight under the USA PATRIOT Act, the VICTORY Act manages to be worse in that area (I didn't think was even possible--yay American ingenuity), and right now, there is only one thing that stands between everyone's civil liberties and Orwell's 1984--the "restraint" of investigators. Looking at history, I can't imagine why I'm worried--government restraint has always worked so well in the past. Just look at the roundup of immigrants in the '20s under Attorney General Palmer. Just look at the roundup and internment of Japanese-Americans in the '40s. Just look at the roundup of communists in the '50s. Just look at the illegal surveillance and wiretaps in the '60s that led to the findings of the Church Committee. I feel better already.