Obama Quietly Backs PATRIOT Act Provisions

Submitted by Eternity on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 12:06.

AntiWar - With the health care debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly supporting renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA PATRIOT Act that civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms.

 

And it is reportedly doing so over the objections of some prominent Democrats.

 

When a panicky Congress passed the act 45 days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, three contentious parts of the law were scheduled to expire at the end of next month, and opponents of these sections have been pushing Congress to substitute new provisions with substantially strengthened civil liberties protections.

But with the apparent approval of the Obama White House and a number of Republicans...Read more.

 

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PLEASE SIGN OUR PATRIOT/FISA OPEN LETTER AND PETITION

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 21:24.

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Dorlester <markqd [at] comcast [dot] net>
Date: Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 11:25 AM
Subject: [CitizenStrategyThinkTank] PLEASE SIGN OUR PATRIOT/FISA OPEN LETTER AND PETITION
To: Citizen Strategy Think Tank <CitizenStrategyThinkTank [at] groups [dot] barackobama [dot] com>

As mentioned recently, today the Get FISA Right group launched our national campaign to support civil liberties during the renewal of the Patriot Act and FISA laws now before the House and Senate. Here's our request:

 

The Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments are under reauthorization review in Congress and we need your help now. Please sign our Open Letter To President Obama and Petition to urge President Obama to tell Congress to provide greater Constitutional protections for all of us!

Here's the story:

Shortly after 9/11, major changes were made to U. S. intelligence gathering laws. These changes were intended to give the U. S. government more effective power to intercept and track terrorists. All of us want the government to be effective in keeping us safe.

Yet, like the unconstitutional and unnecessary wholesale imprisonment of innocent Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor, some provisions of these laws were wildly intrusive on innocent Americans. For example, the Bush Congress granted the executive branch the power to search your home not only without a court-approved warrant, but without your knowledge - and furthermore, the power to imprison you if you found out about the search and told anyone, including your spouse.

Such provisions, granted in the Patriot Act and FISA Amendments, still exist. The most controversial provisions are now being reviewed now by the Congress. To our astonishment, the Obama Administration wants these provisions renewed without effective civil liberties protections.

Senator Feingold and others have strongly objected.

The Get FISA Right group here on OFA has, since last July, urged then-candidate and now President Obama to repeal such provisions or to provide effective safeguards to protect us against over-zealous investigations and investigators.

PLEASE SIGN OUR OPEN LETTER AND PETITION asking the President to reconsider. (There are additional links to background information within our Open Letter.)

Many civil liberties organizations have worked with us on this campaign. By sending our respectful message, you'll help strengthen our founding principles for the future, while still ensuring government power needed to keep us safe.

Thanks!
Mark

P. S. We're passionate Obama supporters, too. There are over 23,000 hard-working Obama supporters in our OFA group.

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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson

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