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Bush wants more power against terrorism Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.wndu.com/news/092003/news_22013.phphttp://www.wndu.com/news/092003/news_22013.php
Bush asks for more power to fight terrorism
Posted: 09/30/2003 10:37 am
Last Updated: 09/30/2003 11:15 am
The Bush Administration is preparing to ask Congress for broader powers to fight terrorism and is refuting critics, including civil liberties groups and some fellow republicans, who say the government has already gone too far.
For months now, Attorney General John Ashcroft has defended the USA Patriot Act before law enforcement groups nationwide. Passed overwhelmingly by Congress in the weeks after 9-11, it gives the government updated terror fighting powers. For example, it allows roving wiretaps to monitor calls of terror suspects who switch cell phones. With just one single search warrant, federal agents can look for suspects in several cities suspected of terrorist activities:
"If we knew then what we know now, we would have passed the Patriot Act six months before September 11th, rather than six weeks after the attacks," says Ashcroft.
Civil liberties groups are attacking the law and at least 160 communities have responded by passing resolutions condemning it. But some of the criticism has come from surprising quarters. The republican controlled House voted in July to gut a part of the Patriot Act that allows secret searches of homes or businesses without telling owners until weeks later.
Called "sneak and peek," it's a power that's long been used in drug and mob cases but can now be used to investigate virtually any crime. Rep. Butch Otter (R) of Idaho said, "American citizens, whom the government has pledged to protect from terrorist activities, now find themselves victims of the very weapon designed to uproot their enemies."
The ACLU is suing over another part of the law that allows a court to give the FBI access to any kind of records, even personal ones, without showing suspicion that a crime has been committed.
The American Library Association has been especially critical of that provision, fearing that federal agents could secretly monitor a person's reading habits.
The justice department has now revealed that it has never actually invoked that part of the law and says the criticism of the Patriot Act is over hyped.
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