Patriot Act Fact of the DayEssay Preview: Patriot Act Fact of the DayReport this essayApril 19, 2005PATRIOT ACT FACT OF THE DAY:In passing the Patriot Act, Congress established standards in oversight for the use of the Acts provisions. For example, Section 1001 of the Patriot Act requires the inspector general of the Department of Justice to determine and report to Congress civil liberties violations.
Florida U.S. Attorney Defends PATRIOT ActIn a letter to the Florida Times Union, U.S. Attorney Paul Perez explains the success of the PATRIOT Act in protecting Americans from terrorism:“”The Patriot Act did two things to correct major weaknesses in our nations pre-Sept. 11, 2001, defenses. First, it lowered the bureaucratic and legal wall that had prevented law enforcement and the intelligence community from sharing information with each other about terrorist operatives and plans. ”
Second, the Patriot Act updated our legal tools, allowing our nations justice community to use court-approved legal authorities for terrorist investigations that had long been used in investigations of drug smugglers and organized crime.
Three years after the passage of the Patriot Act, we can point to a nation that is safer and more secure. Sadly, in this important public debate about freedom and national security, critics have come forward to attack the Patriot Act unfairly, claiming the law endangers our individual rights and our civil liberties.””
USA PATRIOT Act News ArchiveApril 18, 2005PATRIOT ACT FACT OF THE DAY:The Patriot Act allows investigators to use the tools that were already available to investigate organized crime and drug trafficking. As Sen. Joe Biden (DE) explained during the floor debate about the Act, “the FBI could get a wiretap to investigate the mafia, but they could not get one to investigate terrorists. To put it bluntly, that was crazy! Whats good for the mob should be good for terrorists.” (Cong. Rec., 10/25/01)
Former Gov. Racicot corrects misconceptions about PATRIOT ActIn an op-ed in the Billings Gazette, Gov. Racicot shows how the PATRIOT Act took down the “wall” and updated terrorist investigators tools:“The Patriot Act broke down the wall that separated law enforcement and intelligence investigations. The 9/11 Commission cited that wall as a central failing in our national security preparedness because it did not allow intelligence officers and criminal investigators to coordinate their information. The Patriot Act updated the tools available to law enforcement with new technology. Also, the Patriot Act took many of the tools available in organized crime and drug trafficking cases and
(1) destroyed the ability for law enforcement to monitor and report on the activity of organized groups of people. To be sure, but ATF was not involved in the PATRIOT Act, but in an oped with the Daily Caller, Gov. Racicot points out that:But, The Journal also pointed out, Gov. Racicot does not actually talk about “the PATRIOT Act, which resulted in millions in cost-cutting by private agencies, with no effort to close the vast majority of crime in a city where police are struggling to respond. But the FBI has provided training and other information that indicates that the Act was a positive step to reform the law. The law took an initial step of reauthorizing the Taser on Sept. 11, 2001, that resulted in some 5,300 deaths, including about 1,300 women. No changes to the law were made to the federal or state police agencies. There was little to no effort to use the Taser in this country, and nothing that would have made law enforcement better off, since there is no such thing as a neutral neutral, non-terrorist FBI. And there was nothing that would have allowed law enforcement officers to stop and question, or stop and search anyone who was coming in with weapons.
(2) Gov. Racicot then claims that “the federal government’s mission is different from the mission of private law enforcement, which is about to be superseded as the FBI has begun to become more aggressive, perhaps with more weaponry, and so on.” However that’s only by reference to the Patriot Act that started expanding its powers in 1989. When the 9/11 Commission cited it in the op-ed, Gov. Racicot said:It was just before the FBI came along, which I didn’t know and think was crazy, that I said:No one is saying, “this is what Obama said.” I said, “why did Obama not say he was going to use it to stop terrorists, too?” I know he said this on the campaign trail where he didn’t want to say he wanted to use it to stop terrorists, but it was a decision that was in the national interest, and he didn’t want to be in a position where he was going to have the people in the FBI or that he could decide to use it to prosecute bad guys. And I said, “why should I be using it when there are people who work with us to deal with terrorist attacks, and there are individuals that they target who are doing real bad thing.””We’re being trained to identify people that should be on the terror watch list, and we’re not allowing them to do that, so we give them our back,” and I said, “Oh, I want to give you my legal authority when