Deal to renew USA Patriot Act extends police-state measures

The bill upholds the right of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to order both public and private institutions to hand over their records on designated individuals, without the targeted people being informed of this government intrusion into their personal affairs. The FBI can issue so-called “national security letters” to banks, book stores, libraries, hospitals, Internet providers and other institutions requiring them to hand over the most sensitive and private information, even though the FBI has no evidence that the targeted individuals have committed or are about to commit a crime. No court order is required for such letters to be issued, and the institutions that receive the letters are not permitted to reveal their existence.

The Orwellian dimensions of this police-state provision were described by the Washington Post in a November 6, 2005 article as follows: “The records [a national security letter] yields describe where a person makes and spends money, with whom he lives and lived before, how much he gambles, what he buys online, what he pawns and borrows, where he travels, how he invests, what he searches for and reads on the Web, and who telephones or e-mails him at home and at work.”

The House-Senate agreement on extending the Patriot Act was reached after pressure was applied by the White House to resolve differences between bills passed this summer by the two chambers. While some Senators from both parties have raised objections to the final version, there is bipartisan agreement on the necessity to renew the Patriot Act and permanently extend most of its provisions. The bill is set to come to the floor of both the House and the Senate this week for a final vote before being signed into law by President Bush.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/patr-d13.shtml