Posted on 03/09/2006 12:55:20 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON - After a long battle with Congress that went down to the wire, President Bush signed a renewal of the USA Patriot Act on Thursday, a day before 16 major provisions of the old law expire.
Bush said the Patriot Act is vital to win the war on terror and protect Americans. He recalled the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and said the country is still at war.
"We saw the terrorists' destructive vision for us when they killed nearly 3,000 men, women and children," Bush said. "In the face of this ruthless threat, our nation has made a clear choice - we will confront this mortal danger, we will stay on the offensive and we're not going to wait to be attacked again."
Bush's signature came less than 48 hours after the House passed the legislation, ending several months of debate on Capitol Hill over how to balance Americans' right to privacy with a need to foil potential terrorist threats. Political battles over the legislation forced Congress to twice extend the expiration date of the Patriot Act.
"The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do," Bush said during a signing ceremony in the White House East Room. "It has helped us detect terrorist cells, disrupt terrorist plots and save American lives."
Republicans want to take the law into the upcoming midterm elections to show they are acting to protect national security.
The legislation renews the expiring provisions of the original Patriot Act, including one that lets federal officials obtain "tangible items," such as business records, from libraries and bookstores, in connection with foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.
Other provisions clarify that foreign intelligence or counterintelligence officers should share information obtained as part of a criminal investigation with agencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Is that your sister?
He can't because it hasn't, and won't ever do that.
(pssst.....mysterio..........just don't break the law, or become a terrorist, and you'll be fine).
Johnnie doesn't drink Kool-Aid.
If the DUMMIES were pushing this act upon us you people would be pounding the desks and mad as hell.
"King was out there defending Bush after Katrina. Big time."
The congressman from NYC?
Answer the question this time.
Let's see now. Almost 5 years without an attack on the nation, the Democrats on multiple occasions have called for us to cut and run from Iraq, called our soldiers Nazi's (Durbin), claimed the WOT was a "legal" problem to be handled by law enforcement (Kerry), have shown more concern for the civil rights of terrorists then the security of Americans (NSA leaks) and you claim that because of this one issue, which has know been stopped at the request of the UAE, that Americans suddenly believe the Democrats are the better choice to protect us?
How can anyone possibly be as eager to drink the liberal kool aid as you? You seem to think the public has forgotten all the libs have done to hurt the war effort but will NEVER forget the perfectly legal if not politically inept port deal.
Rush said after he signed the bill into law, he shook everyone's hand except Peter "The United Arab Emirates are our enemy" King's. BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
For illegal activities, then? Okay with me.
I don't think so.
You will be judged by your friends.
What about my post was untrue?
Let me elaborate..
It is most certainly a felony to disclose classified information. The contents of an application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and any order granded from the court are both classified. Therefore, even if we somehow knew how the order was being carried out, we would not know if it was being done according to the order, since we wouldn't know what the order was in the first place.
So... Taken together with the fact that no one under FISA surveillance is ever notified they were wiretapped/searched/pen-registered/etc. unless they're being charged with a crime as a result, how exactly would we know whether the PATRIOT ACT has or has not resulted in increased abuses of FISA orders?
The ONLY edge the Republicans had was National Security issue. NOW, that's to the Port Deal hysterics YOU HAVE sold the voters the Democrats are "tough on national security" mythology. Say bye to the Senate Port Deal Hysterics. Know it. YOU all gave it to the Dems by being sucked into Chuck Schumers Election Year Port PR stunt. We warned you people but OH NO we were "Drinking the koolaid" or "just spewing White House PR".
1) That is simply not true, no FISA application or order has ever been disclosed by the government on purpose, before or after the PATRIOT Act. (there was a snafu down in Texas a couple months back)
2) FISA has nothing to do with either NSA wiretaps or the guantanamo prisoners.
(I'm only talking about FISA because most of the controversial parts of the PATRIOT Act modified FISA)
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