Letter to the editor

The Patriot Act

Three sections of the Act (the so-called “library provision,” the use of roving wiretaps, and the “lone wolf” provision) are due to expire, at year’s end, and this, therefore, was the time to either let them expire or, as the New York Times advocated, “add missing civil liberties and privacy protections, address known abuses and trim excesses.”

Of particular concern to civil libertarians was the fact that the three sections of the Patriot Act in question have allowed law enforcement to wiretap and to seize the records of businesses, institutions (including libraries) and individuals without judicial review or oversight and without ever establishing evidence of suspected terrorist activity.

Civil libertarians of the right and left urged the Senate not to reauthorize the three provisions without providing new restraints on law enforcement and adequate protections, ensuring that rights be safeguarded. Alas, the Committee voted last week, with the White House’s blessing, to send to the full Senate, for its consideration, a reauthorized Patriot Act largely intact.

Both Franken and Klobuchar voted to renew the Patriot Act—without any modificatoins to protect civil liberties! Sen. Durbin tried to introduce an amendment to do so, and Klobuchar, thinking she was reading off the original
bill, praised the civil liberty safeguards in the bill and stated we did not need Durbin’s amendment. He then informed her that she was, in fact, reading from his amendment, not the original bill. She voted against his amendment anyway (after having praised it).

Donna Saggia