Source: www.roguegovernment.com
By - Lee Rogers
The criminal terrorists in the federal government are seeking now to extend sunset clauses found in the USA Patriot Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004. This will effectively extend certain provisions of this bill that were set to expire from 2009 to 2019. Both the USA Patriot Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004 were widely panned upon their passage for undermining civil liberties and unnecessarily expanding government power.
Here are some of the ACLU's criticisms in regards to the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004.
Unnecessarily expand wiretapping to erase a key constitutional safeguard and expand the "guilt by association" material support law, including making mere membership in a designated terrorist organization a criminal offense for the first time. The 9/11 Commission did not call for any of these provisions in its report.
Create a weakened civil liberties board that risks becoming the proverbial fox guarding the hen house. The board would be appointed by the President, serve at his pleasure, and have no subpoena power.
Standardize drivers' licenses and state identification cards, creating a de facto national ID. This cosmetic "quick fix" would not effectively deter terrorists, the ACLU said, but would threaten our freedom and our right to privacy by making it easier for the federal government to constantly track our movements.
The ACLU and other civil liberties groups also opposed the original USA Patriot Act legislation along with additional pieces of legislation that later reauthorized many of its provisions. Under the guise of protecting the United States from another 9/11 like attack this bill was pushed through Congress just 45 days after the 9/11 attacks with many legislators voting in favor of it despite not having the opportunity to read the finalized version. The bill essentially expanded the government power to conduct surveillance, in essence destroying the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution which forbids this type of activity. In fact, just recently the ACLU released a comprehensive report on government abuses that have occurred following the passage of the USA Patriot Act.
“Reclaiming Patriotism” reveals that in the years since its passage, the Patriot Act has paved the way for the expansion of government-sponsored surveillance including the gutting of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and a recent revamping of the Attorney General Guidelines to allow law enforcement to conduct physical surveillance without suspicion. Indeed, over the last eight years, numerous expansions of executive authority have worked in tandem to infringe upon our rights. Only by understanding the larger picture of the combined effects of Patriot Act, the amendments to FISA, the guidelines for physical surveillance and other expansions of power can Congress make an informed, consistent and principled decision about whether and how to amend all of these very powerful surveillance tools.
Both of these laws are bad for freedom and liberty. This is why it is disturbing that these clowns in Washington DC want to extend certain provisions in these bills from 2009 to 2019. In one of the Patriot Act reauthorizations, a sunset clause was set for section 206 - roving wiretaps and section 215 - access to business records under FISA for December 31, 2009. In this new bill, these provisions will be changed to expire on December 31, 2019 instead.
Below is the bill, HR 1467 in its entirety.
To extend certain provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 for 10 years.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the ‘Safe and Secure America Act of 2009’.
SEC. 2. 10-YEAR EXTENSION OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE USA PATRIOT ACT AND THE INTELLIGENCE REFORM AND TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT OF 2004.
(a) USA PATRIOT Act- Section 102(b) of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-177; 120 Stat. 195) is amended by striking ‘December 31, 2009’ and inserting ‘December 31, 2019’.
(b) Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004- Section 6001(b)(1) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-458; 118 Stat. 3742; 50 U.S.C. 1801 note) is amended by striking ‘December 31, 2009’ and inserting ‘December 31, 2019’.
These bills were criticized by all prominent civil liberty based groups when they were originally passed. The war on terror has been proven to be a complete hoax, especially when you consider that the official story of 9/11 has been universally criticized by independent researchers as being the real conspiracy theory. The phony terror war has only been used to pass bills like these that destroy civil liberties and for the government to engage in endless foreign wars. There is simply no need for these laws or the extension of any provisions found within these laws which this new bill authorizes. Anybody who supports this new bill extending the sunset clause of these provisions should be removed from office. These provisions don't make the United States safer, but they do serve to further eradicate civil liberties.
