The Patriot Act - Criticism!

A nation should make its decisions out of courage, not cowardice and self inflicted fear as our present blind ideological regime seems only to know. Inordinate power granted to government has a history of too often being abused. We must all unite to rewrite/re-right this horrendous theft of liberty and freedom. It is dangerous to blindly accept such a doctrine which simply plays into the hands of the corporate elite, lending credence to their dreams of enslaving us lessers as libertyless sheep.

The Patriot Act:
FISC - Foreign Intelligence Survelliance Court - Secret Court?
The Patriot Act II - Secret
Patriot Act II - Overview
The Homeland Security Act

TERRORIZING THE BILL OF RIGHTS
by James Bovard

How do you find a needle in a haystack? Set fire to the haystack.

Following the September 11 attacks, Congress joined the largest manhunt in history by passing a 342-page bill called the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. The bill's acronym, USA PATRIOT, revealed the depth of feeling, if not thought, that had gone into the measure. In support of the bill, House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner declared, 'The first civil right of every American is to be free of domestic terrorism.'

USA PATRIOT rewrote laws that had been put in place to curb past government abuses. It gave Attorney General John Ashcroft powers that would have been unthinkable a few months before. Lawmakers claimed they were bringing the Bill of Rights up to date, allowing law enforcement to operate efficiently in the age of the cell phone and laptop.

Thanks to USA PATRIOT and the flurry of executive orders that have followed, our government now can more easily conduct secret trials, listen to privileged conversations between prisoners and their counsel, imprison people indefinitely on minor charges without even confirming they are being held, eavesdrop on any telephone that a suspect may use (including those in public places such as airports), sort through thousands of private e-mails while promising not to read "content" (a term left undefined), conduct "sneak and peak" searches for physical evidence without notifying the suspect at the time, rummage through school records of foreign students and appoint bank clerks and employers as deputy counterterrorists (with no training). The CIA and other intelligence groups have been allowed back into the domestic arena. All manner of checks and balances, of oversight, have been tossed onto the bonfire. ...Article Continued