12/31/03
THE MOST
UNDER-REPORTED STORY OF 2003 : PATRIOT ACT 2
By
J. Parnell McCarter
With
little public attention or notice, Patriot Act 2 (otherwise known as the "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2004")
became law.
Here
is information about it from http://www.sacurrent.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10705756&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=482778&rfi=6
:
WITH A
WHISPER, NOT A BANG
By David Martin
O n December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein,
President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team,
but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI
sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of
the signing - on a Saturday - as "the President signs bills seven days a
week." But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday
happened more than a year ago - on a spending bill that the President needed to
sign, to prevent shuttng down the federal government the following Monday.
By
signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively consigned a
dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently,
while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were
aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial
records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime or
terrorism.
The Bush Administration
and its Congressional allies tucked away these new executive powers in the
Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, a legislative behemoth
that funds all the intelligence activities of the federal government. The Act
included a simple, yet insidious, redefinition of "financial
institution," which previously referred to banks, but now includes
stockbrokers, car dealerships, casinos, credit card companies, insurance
agencies, jewelers, airlines, the U.S. Post Office, and any other business
"whose cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal,
tax, or regulatory matters."
Congress passed the
legislation around Thanksgiving. Except for U.S. Representative Charlie
Gonzalez, all San Antonio's House members voted for the act. The Senate passed
it with a voice vote to avoid individual accountability. While broadening the
definition of "financial institution," the Bush administration is
ramping up provisions within the 2001 USA Patriot Act, which granted the FBI
the authority to obtain client records from banks by merely requesting the
records in a "National Security Letter." To get the records, the FBI
doesn't have to appear before a judge, nor demonstrate "probable
cause" - reason to believe that the targeted client is involved in
criminal or terrorist activity. Moreover, the National Security Letters are
attached with a gag order, preventing any financial institution from informing
its clients that their records have been surrendered to the FBI. If a financial
institution breaches the gag order, it faces criminal penalties. And finally,
the FBI will no longer be required to report to Congress how often they have
used the National Security Letters.
The
White House released a brief notice of the Act on its website at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031213-3.html
:
Statement on H.R. 2417
Statement by the President
Today, I have signed into
law H.R. 2417, the "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2004." The Act authorizes funding for United States intelligence
activities, including activities in the war against terrorists of global reach…