AlterNet
By Silja J.A. Talvi

08/08/05

On July 29th, the Senate reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act was approved by a process known as 'unanimous consent.' The week prior, the House majority voted to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act (257-171). President Bush is expected to sign the reauthorized and largely permanent PATRIOT Act into law on Sept. 11, 2005, pending an ironed-out version between the House and the Senate once the legislative session resumes. While the law is one of the most far-reaching and drastic in U.S. history, it is not the first time the government has moved to utilize a time of real or perceived crisis to increase its powers of surveillance and detention. And while portions of the bill will be reviewed again in two years, much of what is considered its most invasive components remains. 'We rushed to put together legislation that we thought would safeguard us from another terrorist attack,' U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-AK, said in the aftermath of the House reauthorization vote. 'In the process we have created a bill that I feel takes away from our constitutional freedom. This is not patriotism, this is Big Brother'...

http://www.alternet.org/rights/23917/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp