[ale] OT: Fixing Patriot Act

Bridges, Doug DBridges at alston.com
Thu May 20 10:33:48 EDT 2004


Bob's characterization of the provisions of the Patriot Act is wrong.  Nothing in the Patriot Act gives anyone the right to arrest and hold U.S. Citizens without trial. 

The Patriot act did expand the ability of the FBI to get wiretaps.  It used to be that they could get a wiretap proving that the wiretap would be relevant in a case where terrorism is the "sole focus".  The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reviewed these requests.  The Patriot Act changes these wiretap provisions to allow them to be used where the case is where foreign intelligence (including terrorism) is a "significant focus".  The requests are stilled reviewed by the FISC.  This expansion was
ruled Constitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

The Patriot Act did allow the use of roving wiretaps in foreign intelligence investigations without specifying a set location or set person for the wiretap.  You can read the current state of the law regarding these wiretaps at 50 U.S.C. 1805(c) (http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/1805.html).  The safe act requires that, in foreign intelligence investigations, you must specify either the person, or the place. In addition, if you are specifying only the person, you can only listen in on phones from that
place if the presence of the person who is the target is ascertained by the FBI.

>From my understanding of the SAFE act, it addresses neither of the first two provisions. Quoting from the EFF website, the provisions of the Patriot act addressed in the SAFE Act are:

* Prevents the government from accessing library records without judicial approval.

* Limits the use of "John Doe roving" wiretaps. Under the PATRIOT Act, the DOJ can get wiretaps for foreign intelligence investigations without ever specifically identifying the person (hence "John Doe") or place (hence "roving") to be tapped. SAFE would ensure that these Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) wiretap orders don't violate the 4th Amendment.

* Limits the use of secret "sneak & peek" searches. The FBI should only be allowed to secretly search someone's home if it is absolutely necessary. SAFE would limit secret searches to those situations where notice would endanger life or limb, result in flight from prosecution, or result in evidence destruction or tampering.

* Expands PATRIOT's "sunset" provision. SAFE would ensure that the most damaging sections of PATRIOT will expire at the end of 2005.

* Protects Americans' sensitive, personal information from government access without justification. SAFE protects private records held by third parties, such as financial and medical records. SAFE restores the pre-PATRIOT requirement that the FBI present specific facts to a judge that indicate that the party whose records are sought is a spy or an international terrorist before a court order is issued.

The full text of the SAFE Act is located at http://eff.com/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism/PATRIOT/safe_act.php

The full text of the USA PATRIOT Act is located at http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism/20011025_hr3162_usa_patriot_bill.html



-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org]On Behalf Of Bob
Toxen
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 8:11 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: [ale] OT: Fixing Patriot Act


Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:58:08 -0400
From: Bob Toxen <bob at verysecurelinux.com>
To: bob at cavu.com
Subject: Fixing Patriot Act
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i

There is a bill before Congress to fix some outrageous provisions of the
Patriot act, such as the right to arrest and hold U.S. Citizens without
trial for months or years, the right to tap any citizen's phone without
evidence that the person may be a terrorist or spy, etc.

Please consider sending an email or FAX.  It takes only 2 minutes:

     http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2866

Thanks,
Bob
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