Council takes on Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

If critics of the USA Patriot Act are correct, the Fairbanks City Council may have spent more time pondering a...     Read More

The Bill of Rights wins with the Lawless team   [Fairbanks BORDC]

During this past weekend Mike Lawless, carrying a copy of the Bill of Rights in his pocket and the Fairbanks...     Read More

Proposal rebukes Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

JUNEAU—Inspired by a resolution passed by the Fairbanks City Council, Senate Minority Leader Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, is working on a...     Read More

House Takes Stand Against Patriot Act   [Santa Fe New Mexican]

By an overwhelming vote, the House on Monday passed legislation putting the state on record as opposing many provisions of...     Read More

Santa Fe Police Detain Library Patron   [American Libraries]

A St. John’s College Library visit by a former public defender was abruptly interrupted February 13 when city police officers...     Read More

Librarians try to alter Patriot Act   [San Francisco Chronicle]

Along with the usual reminders to hold the noise down and pay overdue fines, library patrons in Santa Cruz are...     Read More

Red Alert for Bill of Rights!   [The Village Voice]

The Justice Department ... seems to be running amok ... This agency right now is the biggest threat to personal...     Read More

Portland case could put to test Patriot Act   [Oregon Statesman Journal]

PORTLAND — The government’s expanded spying powers under the USA Patriot Act could face their first test in open court...     Read More

Judge Rejects Challenge to FBI Spy Powers   [U.K. Guardian Unlimited]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The FBI does not have to explain why it applied for search warrants to bug homes...     Read More

DOJ Drafts Sweeping Expansion of the UPA   [The Center for Public Integrity]

(WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2003) -- The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed...     Read More

Ashcroft Out of Control   [The Village Voice]

Many of the new security measures proposed by our government in the name of fighting the "war on terror" are...     Read More

It was a good day for the 6th Amendment   [NorthJersey.com]

Score one for the 6th Amendment. U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey ruled on Tuesday that the government must allow lawyers...     Read More

Supreme Court Justice Scalia Bans Media   [Common Dreams News Center]

CLEVELAND—Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has banned broadcast media from an appearance Wednesday where he will receive an award for...     Read More

Court stiff-arms privacy challenge   [Los Angeles Times]

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a preliminary challenge to the government's expanded powers to wiretap and search people...     Read More

Ashcroft: Criticism of DOJ "aiding terrorists"   [Declan McCullagh's Politech]

The Washington Post yesterday said in an editorial:  >Mr. Ashcroft may not like the criticism. But his job...     Read More

Group raises funds to send delegate to Juneau   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

A fundraising campaign began in an upstairs room at University Community Presbyterian Church Sunday when a woman whipped out a...     Read More

Ex-Intel VP Fights for Detainee   [Wired.com]

Friends of an Intel programmer who is being held in a federal prison can't help but shake their heads in...     Read More

House Judiciary Chairman Hesitant on UPA II

Associated Press
FOX News (website)
4/16/2003

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's plans to expand a post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism law face resistance from a powerful House Republican who says he's not even sure he wants the government to keep its new powers.

James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, complains that the Justice Department isn't sharing enough information for lawmakers to make a judgment on how well or poorly the USA Patriot Act is working.

"I can't answer that because the Justice Department has classified as top-secret most of what it's doing under the Patriot Act," Sensenbrenner said when asked about the future of the anti-terrorism law in a recent interview.

Sensenbrenner maintains that because the department refuses to be forthcoming, it is losing the public relation battle needed to extend the law beyond its October 2005 expiration, much less expand it.

"The burden will be on the Justice Department and whomever is attorney general at that time to convince Congress and the president to extend the Patriot Act or modify it," he said. "But because of the fact that everything has been classified as top-secret, the public debate is centering on (the act's) onerousness."

For example, the American Civil Liberties Union this week used newspaper ads to attack one provision that the ACLU says allows the government to enter homes, conduct searches, download computer contents and Internet viewing histories without informing the occupant that such a search was conducted.

"Enacting policies that allow the government to enter our homes in secret and to collect highly personal information won't make us safer, but it will make us less free," said Anthony Romero, the ACLU's executive director.

A Justice Department spokesman said the Bush administration will do its best to answer more than 100 questions from give Sensenbrenner and House Democrats about the law and its use in the war on terrorism.

"The courts have upheld our actions time and time again," spokesman Mark Corallo said Tuesday. But "we will do everything we can to cooperate with Congress and with Chairman Sensenbrenner in answering his questions."

Passed weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the USA Patriot Act granted the government broad new powers to use wiretaps, electronic and computer eavesdropping and searches and the authority to access a wide range of financial and other information in its investigations. It also broke down the traditional wall between FBI investigators and intelligence agents.

Justice officials won't say what their new proposal would do, but "we will present Congress with an anti-terrorism package sometime in the near future," Corallo said.

An early draft leaked to reporters in November suggested creating a DNA database of "suspected terrorists;" forcing suspects to prove why they should be released on bail, rather than have the prosecution prove why they should be held; and deporting U.S. citizens who become members of or help terrorist groups.

But that draft was never reviewed by Attorney General John Ashcroft and about two-thirds of it will not be proposed to Congress, according to Justice Department officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

Advocates say the current law has helped quash other terrorism attacks, but opponents claim it has eroded civil liberties.

Among the advocates is Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, who isn't waiting on 2005 to craft legislation to extend the life of the law.

Last week, Hatch sought to extend the act through an amendment to a bill that would further expand government wiretapping authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Lawmakers left for their Easter break before considering it.

"It seems to me to be ridiculous to take away the best law enforcement tool against terrorism before we get rid of terrorism," said Hatch, R-Utah. "This bill has helped us protect ourselves from terrorism both inside and outside the country. It's a tough bill, but it's constitutional and it works."

The Justice Department likely will need full Republican support to renew the anti-terrorism law, with congressional Democrats are already lining up against Hatch's legislation.

A renewal effort "will be highly controversial and is not justified by the Justice Department's own record," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat.

Close

Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act   [The Washington Post]

ARCATA, Calif. — This North Coast city may look sweet -- old, low-to-the-ground buildings, town square with a bronze statue...     Read More

GOP calls for wider powers to track citizens   [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

WASHINGTON — With the war on terrorism lagging behind the war in Iraq, Republicans in Congress and the White House...     Read More

Libraries Rally Against USA Patriot Act   [FOX News]

PATERSON, N.J.—Librarians across the country are rising up against the USA Patriot Act, shredding records and making other attempts to...     Read More

Conservatives Rise for the Bill of Rights!   [The Village Voice]

A significant development in the movement to resist the Ashcroft-Bush dismembering of the Bill of Rights is the growing coalition...     Read More

Chief Architect of Patriot Act to Quit   [Los Angeles Times]

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is losing another key foot soldier in its war on terrorism. Viet Dinh, the chief...     Read More

Fighting the Patriot Act—Now It's Alaska!   [CounterPunch.org]

The Bush Administration and Attorney General John Ashcroft may have been able to pull a fast one in the wake...     Read More

Town criminalizes compliance with Patriot Act   [CNN]

ARCATA, California (AP) — More than 100 cities and one state have passed resolutions condemning the USA Patriot Act, saying...     Read More

Senate passes resolution questioning Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

JUNEAU—The state Senate passed a resolution late Tuesday expressing concern over the federal USA Patriot Act, an antiterrorism measure passed...     Read More

Alaska Passes Anti-Patriot Act Resolution   [ABC News]

May 23—Alaska has joined a growing national rebellion against the USA Patriot Act, voting to oppose the massive federal anti-terrorism...     Read More

Anti-Terror Power Used Broadly   [The Washington Post]

The Justice Department has used many of the anti-terrorism powers granted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks...     Read More

Ashcroft Defied on City Hall Steps   [The Village Voice]

"As New Yorkers living in the city most affected by September 11, we acknowledge the need to protect our safety,...     Read More

US threatens mass expulsions   [BBC News]

More than 13,000 Arab and Muslim men in the US are facing deportation after co-operating with post-11 September anti-terror measures,...     Read More

Patriot Act of 2001 casts wide net   [The Washington Post]

Long-sought details have begun to emerge from the Justice Department on how anti-terrorist provisions of the USA Patriot Act were...     Read More

N.J. Judge Unseals Transcript In Terror Case   [The Washington Post]

PATERSON, N.J., June 24—Mohamed Atriss spent six months here in the Passaic County Jail based on accusations by county prosecutors...     Read More

Report on UPA Alleges Civil Rights Violations   [The New York Times]

WASHINGTON, July 20—A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department...     Read More

House Takes Aim at Patriot Act Secret Searches   [Reuters]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to roll back a key provision, which allows the government...     Read More

Toughen Patriot Act, attorney general says   [Anchorage Daily News]

United States Attorney General John Ashcroft told federal and local officials Monday the USA Patriot Act should be expanded, not...     Read More

War on Terrorism Increasingly Used in War on Drugs   [Drug Policy Alliance]

A Watauga County prosecutor is using a law intended to combat terrorism to fight the spread of methamphetamine laboratories in...     Read More

Justice Department Opposes "Sneak and Peek" Ban   [The Washington Post]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Justice Department on Friday opposed a bid to ban the government from conducting secret "sneak and peek"...     Read More

A tiny town shouts "Whoa!" to Patriot Act   [The Seattle Times]

TONASKET, Okanogan County—If this is a hotbed of sedition, they're hiding it pretty well. In fact, the most suspicious group...     Read More