Any Act of Congress that allows governments to spy on U.S. citizens for “intelligence gathering,” or even for “criminal suspicion” and without warrant, is a direct threat to individual liberty.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6902.htm

PATRIOT ACT ABUSED AGAIN!!!!!

Probe Eyes Faulty FBI Arrest of Lawyer

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department (news - web sites)'s watchdog office has opened an investigation into the arrest of an Oregon lawyer that was based on what turned out to be faulty FBI (news - web sites) analysis of a fingerprint linked to the deadly terrorist attack in Spain last March.

Glenn A. Fine, the department's inspector general, said the antiterrorism Patriot Act may have been improperly used in the arrest of attorney Brandon Mayfield.

Mayfield, a Muslim convert, was arrested May 6 on a material witness warrant after an FBI analysis concluded he was a match for a fingerprint found on a bag containing detonators like those used in the attacks on trains in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people and wounded 2,000.

A few weeks later, Mayfield was released after the FBI admitted it had made a mistake and that the fingerprint did not match Mayfield's.

The inspector general's investigation was disclosed in a twice-a- year report to Congress on potential civil rights and civil liberties abuses by Justice Department officials. A copy of the report was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, a day ahead of its scheduled public release.

The Mayfield investigation is focusing on how the fingerprint error was made and also on a complaint by Mayfield that the "FBI inappropriately conducted a surreptitious search of his home ... potentially motivated by his Muslim faith and ties to the Muslim community," according to Fine's report.

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility also is investigating the actions of prosecutors in the Mayfield case.

The Patriot Act, passed a few weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, includes a provision authorizing the inspector general to review any complaints about civil liberties and civil rights abuses involving Justice Department personnel. The latest report covers the period between Dec. 16, 2003, and June 21, 2004.

During that time, the inspector general received 1,613 such complaints, the vast majority of which did not require investigation.

Nearly 1,000 of the complaints did not involve a Justice Department employee or included farfetched claims, such as that the government was interfering with a person's thoughts or pumping poisonous gas into someone's home. Another 410 complaints were outside the inspector general's jurisdiction, including claims of improper prison medical care and inadequate library facilities.

Of the remaining 208 complaints, only 13 were determined to warrant further review, including the Mayfield case.

Another case that prompted an investigation involves allegations by four people of Arab descent who say they were improperly detained by the FBI while trying to enter the United States. They were allegedly handcuffed, taken to an FBI office for questioning and "subjected to unnecessary humiliation," the report said.


Informant: say_no_to_patriot_act

DAMAGE CONTROL: SELLING PATRIOT ACT ON ROAD SHOW

Due to the massive opposition by cities, counties and states to the "Patriot Act," Attorney General John Ashcroft is now sending forth his emissary, former U.S. assistant attorney general, Professor Viet Dinh, who authored the controversial legislation to conduct damange control in selected cities. To date, 282 communities in 39 states and four state-wide resolutions, representing about 49.3 million people have stepped forward to oppose the Patriot Act, either in whole or specific parts. Ashcroft's point man for this road tour is Professor Viet Dinh, currently a professor of law at Georgetown University and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dinh escaped from Viet Nam in 1978 at age 10. Now, at age 34, Dinh is quite a story: boat refugee from Vietnam, Oregon fruit picker, Orange County burger-flipper, Harvard Law School graduate, U.S. Supreme Court clerk, Georgetown Law School professor and lawyer to a high-powered congressional committee. Dinh became a mascot for the Republican party and a lawyer for two of this nation's most bitterly partisan battles: working for Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-N.Y.) in the Senate investigation into President Clinton's Whitewater dealings in the mid-1990s and in 1998 for Sen. Domenici during Clinton's impeachment trial. Henry Hyde, [R-Ill], member of the Council on Foreign Relations, presided over the House Managers during the impeachment trial.

Currently, Dinh is on tour for Ashcroft, bringing his support of the very law he crafted to American cities in an effort to stop the massive opposition to the law and refusal by cities and counties to carry out its provisions. Professor Dinh supports the Patriot Act as a deterrent to terrorism under "our constitutional democracy." The united States of America was established a Constitutional Republic and has never been a democracy...

http://www.newswithviews.com/NWVexclusive/exclusive8.htm


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - September 14th, 2004

Red Alert: UK Patriot Act On Its Way

All well-meaning people need to take action against the Civil Contingencies Bill now before the House of Lords. This extremely dangerous Bill would give the Government the legal power to put an end to democratic institutions and civil liberties in the UK. Believe it or not, it's true. No exaggeration. Lord Lucas, speaking in the House of Lords during the July 5th second reading, came to the point: "Are we opening up our system to the equivalent of what happened in Germany in 1933, where it became possible for an extreme party legitimately to hijack a democracy and turn it into something totalitarian? . . . They [the New Labour Government] appear to want a role of issuing diktats." He concluded by calling for amendments to the Bill which would safeguard our rights, "or we are signing our death warrant as a democracy".
That is exactly the issue and the menace. Lord Lucas was not exaggerating.

http://www.infowars.com/print/ps/uk_patriotact.htm?nav=rss_politics


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - September 13th, 2004

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the government has acquired powerful new legal tools, including those provided by the Patriot Act, to collect intelligence on Americans...

http://tinyurl.com/3ovzo


From Information Clearing House

by Michael Hassig

Tom Paine

09/03/04

The Patriot Act was signed into law just 45 days after [the 0911] attacks. It passed the Senate without discussion, debate or hearings. Despite attempts in the House to construct a compromise bill, the House leadership rejected that approach and instead insisted that the bill be considered without discussion or amendment. Our representatives in Washington were faced with a simple yes or no vote -- one that by extension was characterized as: Are you a patriot -- or not? Two simple questions remained unasked at that time: Would the provisions contained in this bill have prevented those attacks? Or were these provisions merely a longstanding law enforcement 'wish list' that had been previously and repeatedly rejected by Congress?

http://tinyurl.com/5tr25

In a precendent-setting case, the IRS wielded new power to punish the political speech of those who "espouse views" the government considers "inconsistent" with government-held beliefs. In a hearing originally closed to the public in a secret tribunal on a military island, but moved to a public location after protests from the press and the public, the IRS wants to wield this power against a former IRS whistleblower, who was forced to resign upon his discovery of fraud in the agency. The IRS claims it can exercise this authority in a secret proceeding without allowing a person the opportunity to cure any alleged mistakes, the opportunity to prepare a defense by knowing the exact facts they are accused of, without any opportunity for discovery, without any opportunity to call witnesses necessary for their defense, without any opportunity to cross examine their accusers, without any opportunity to testify at their own hearing about the merits of their position, without being forced to testify against themselves without such an assertion being held against them, and without even an opportunity for a hearing on the evidence. This power of this little office with a Napoleonic vision goes even beyond the Patriot Act type authority and stories of FBI monitoring of war protestors.

Too Hoover-ish to be true in modern America? Just read the case of the IRS against Joe Banister scheduled for a "hearing" -- a hearing where the IRs prohibited Banister from introducing any witnesses or presenting any evidence as to his defenses, and even discussing the sincerity, the truth or the "reasonableness" of his positions -- on December 1 in the city by the bay, in the Tax Court chambers of the federal courthouse in San Francisco. History is being made.

http://www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1414


Source:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - August 26th, 2004

There are sinister implications in the fact that various provisions of the so-called Patriot II Act are being surreptitiously slipped into other legislation. Attorney General John Ashcroft has admitted as much, saying that it will be used to expand law enforcement powers “upon the passage of all provisions of Patriot II.” This would lead one to believe that they’re going to try to break it up and slip it in.

Otherwise he would have said, “upon the passage of the act,” not “all provisions.” That gives you some clue as to what the Bushonian strategy is with the bill. Ashcroft then went on to say that he would sign a so-called ‘Blanket Letter of National Security Findings,’ which would make the issuance of secret arrest warrants possible and eliminate the need for law enforcement to request individual letters from the Department of Justice or relevant agencies regarding actions against groups or individuals.

There are currently six bills pending in Congress that would take provisions from Patriot Act II -- HR-3179, the Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act of 2003; HR-3037, Anti-Terrorism Tools Enhancement Act of 2003; HR2934 and S1604, Terrorist Penalties Enhancement Act of 2003; HR3040 and S1606, Pre-trial Detention and Lifetime Supervision of Terrorists Act of 2003.

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=49&contentid=1476


From Aftermath News
Top Stories - August 20, 2004

PATRIOT ACT II - WAITING IN THE WINGS

673 links dealing with PATRIOT ACT
http://search.aclu.org/AdvancedSearchResults.cfm

VARIOUS SECTIONS OF "PATRIOT ACT I"
http://www.infowars.com/HR_3162.html

PATRIOT ACT II - WAITING IN THE WINGS...SHOULD BUSH GET RE-ELECTED
http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.89:

audio clips on the federal reserve

The full audio clip: creature.mp3 (72 min)
http://www.reconveyit.com/creature.mp3

Ed Griffin's bio http://www.realityzone.com/info.html#griffin

portions of the ending in the clip above

http://PlayAudio-123.com/play.asp?m=93187&f=AMKOFV&ps=13&p=1 (4 min)

PATRIOT ACT II
http://tinyurl.com/3kccl


Informant: Jack Topel

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news

Concerns with Patriot Act mount -- 330 communities, four states worry federal law gives too much power --

The City Council of Tumater, WA had a public hearing on whether to oppose the USA Patriot Act... The concerns about the Patriot Act were enough to compel the Tumwater City Council on July 20 to join more than 330 communities and four states that have condemned or expressed worry about the act.

The resolution called on city employees in this town near Olympia not to follow provisions of the law that violate the Constitution — though leaving it vague how they would interpret this.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/9347941.htm


Informant: Friends