Free Republic

While Republicans are fighting to keep America safe, Washington Democrats sought to remove the one provision in the Patriot Act that allows for individuals to be investigated if they are thought to be a candidate for sudden jihadists terror like Army Major Nidal M. Hasan.

Why do Democrats in Congress want to change key laws that have helped to discover terrorist plots? One would think that the arrests of Najibullah Zazi...and of two others charged with planning to blow up buildings in Dallas, Texas, and Springfield, Ill.—would generate support for the intelligence-gathering tools that protect this country from Muslim fanatics. In Mr. Zazi's case, the government has already confirmed the value of these tools: It has filed a notice of its intent to use information gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was specifically written to help combat terrorists and spies. Nevertheless, there is...

While battling the FBI's expanded surveillance guidelines, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., also revealed (Daily Kos, Oct. 8) that in the Senate Judiciary Committee review of the Patriot Act (also Oct. 8), Republicans protecting the Act were joined, in a closed-door classified session, by Obama officials with amendments further preserving it. Then, in a public session, all but three Democrats voted for a watered-down "compromise" bill by Patrick Leahy and Diane Feinstein. Feingold, Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and new Democrat Arlen Specter (Pa.) had the constitutional courage to oppose the Judiciary Committee bill eventually going to the floor that with few exceptions,...

During an appearance as the guest speaker at the Oct. 8 meeting of The World Affairs Council of San Antonio, Jeffrey F. Addicott told the story of what happened after U.S. Northern Command issued a plea for help to professors serving at the nation’s 200 law schools: Only one professor replied. Addicott.

I do not like being called a terrorist, especially by Obama. "I have been banned from one political forum because I attacked Obama's "change" of mind in regard to the Patriotact or the wiretap bill. I have been attacked by conservatives for my call to end the Patriotact."

Let’s start with the good news for a change. Jena Baker McNeill at the Heritage Foundation notes that with the three recent terrorist conspiracies thwarted, U.S. law enforcement has frustrated 26 efforts since 9/11 to kill Americans on American soil. She also notes that new law enforcement powers granted to fight terrorism after the attacks on New York and Washington are a big part of the reason these attacks were stopped before they started. She concludes that fact has important implications for Congress and the White House. “Reauthorization of key provisions of the PATRIOT Act and FISA will require congressional...

Homeland Security: Provisions of the law that spared New York another 9/11 are set to expire Dec. 31. So why do Democrats want to gut this law and remove the immunity telecom companies have for helping protect America? To borrow a British expression from World War II, it was a very near thing. The capture, arrest and indictment of 24-year-old Afghan immigrant Najubullah Zazi before he could set off bombs made from store-bought chemicals prevented a tragedy of potentially devastating proportions. It wouldn't have happened if the critics of Patriot Act had their way. The capture of Zazi was made...

Amid terror threat, Dems chip away at Patriot Act By: Byron York Chief Political CorrespondentOctober 2, 2009 You might not have heard, but some key parts of the nation's most important anti-terrorism law are set to expire in December. When the Patriot Act was originally passed in the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress put time limits on three of its most far-reaching provisions: "Roving wiretaps," which allow investigators to keep up with suspects who use dozens of cell phones to avoid being traced; "business records" authority, which lets investigators ask a special national-security court for access to...

Last week our intelligence service broke up three major terrorist plots that had the potential of killing thousands of innocent Americans. One of the reasons these attacks were detected and broken up was the Patriot Act. Two major provisions of the Patriot act are coming up for renewal: * Roving wiretap is a wiretap that follows the surveillance target. For instance, if a target attempts to defeat surveillance by throwing away a phone and acquiring a new one, by moving, or by any other methods, another surveillance order would usually need to be applied for. However, a "roving" wiretap follows...

The president's support for the Patriot Act likely is based on two critical factors. Now that Mr. Obama is responsible for implementing the law, he may better understand its practical utility and the checks in place to protect civil liberties. The administration also does not want to set itself up for blame should a domestic terror attack occur. It would be easy in that case for critics to say Mr. Obama was "the president who weakened the laws that protect Americans from terrorists." This goes to show that the most politically expedient course is sometimes the smartest.

Recently declassified documents obtained by Wired magazine reveal a massive Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) data mining operation. It already possesses over 1.5 billion records from government and private-sector sources. That figure is expected by the FBI to balloon to over 6 billion within a few years. And it is not just terrorists they are after.  According to the documents, the National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) is being used to pursue multiple types of non-terrorism domestic investigations. It is also meant to be able to sort through the data — everything from health and travel records to credit card...

Unbelievable. While serving up caf and decaf, the java guy was secretly working to commit mass murder. Cream and sugar with your terrorist attack, madam? Glazed or jelly donut with your bomb blast, sir? The recent arrest of suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi reminds us all of the important role surveillance plays in safeguarding our people and our nation. Zazi is in custody on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. He was accused last week of conspiring to launch a bombing attack in America with the help of some common beauty supplies and insidious training from al-Qaida in...

Back in August civil liberty activists were appalled to find that the Obama Administration was openly encouraging supporters of the Democrats’ health care plan to report items they thought inaccurate to an e-mail address set up for that purpose. Hundreds reported getting unsolicited e-mail messages from the White House, purportedly to set them straight on the facts as Obama’s team presented them. After much initial public outcry, the flap over the “ flag@whitehouse.gov This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ” e-mail address dwindled down. A new report made the news this...

**Is the media starting to wake up to Obama, I mean when Rachel Maddow questions The One..in what she calls the tail of two speeches made simultaneously. Good video** Have you seen Minority Report with Tom Cruise? Well here it goes, welcome to real life. Obama is implementing Precrime, and yes this apply's to normal citizens like you and I

The Justice Department has indicated that the Obama administration is in support of renewing a pair of controversial sections of the USA Patriot Act that expire later this year. The provisions that will expire in December include Section 206, that allows "roving" wiretaps so FBI agents can tap multiple phones or computers (with court authorization) that a specific person (target) may use.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday. Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps. ... As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law....

The US Patriot Act was used AGAIN to incarcerate the juvenile & model citizen for months without being charged with a crime! Arrested March 5 not indicted until July 9 10th He is detained on the basis of "good faith" beliefs on the part of the investigators, as permitted under the Patriot Act, rather than the normal legal standard of "probable cause" to suspect his commission of a crime. Fact: Ashton has an airtight alibi for the night he supposedly made a threat against Purdue University in Indiana; while the real perps go free to brag about hacking his skype...

Despite the advances in technologies and solutions, the concern that remains central to the objective of providing security to the nation is the question of “who is who?” The federal homeland security laws directed toward enhancing the security of the United States — and the federal government’s confidence in the adequacy of such efforts — is, at the most basic level, grounded in the process of identity determination and the use of powerful databases to accurately determine individual identity to best evaluate threat and risk. Much of government’s effort to protect the borders, minimize the risk to infrastructure and ensure...

Authority: The secretary of homeland security equates dissent with extremism. If you're pro-life or support the right to bear arms, you need to be watched. And did you know Timothy McVeigh was a disgruntled veteran?If we are to believe the report released this week by Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," the vast right-wing conspiracy is alive and well and dangerous. The Tea Party activists who demonstrated against onerous taxation past, present and future are "right-wing extremists" who bear watching as they conspire against government authority. Perhaps...

An Ohio man, fed up with deceptive junk mail, made the mistake of losing his temper while on the phone with a St. Louis company pitching an extended auto-service contract. Now he finds himself behind bars, where he is charged with making a terrorist threat. According to court documents, Charles W. Papenfus, 43, allegedly told a sales representative during a May 18 telephone call that he would burn down the building and kill the employees and their families. He was indicted for making a terrorist threat, a Class D felony; and he could be sentenced to up to four years...

A federal appeals court in Manhattan on Friday reversed a lower-court ruling that had allowed the government to bar a prominent Muslim scholar from entering the United States on the ground that he had contributed to a charity that had connections to terrorism. The scholar, Tariq Ramadan, 46, a Swiss academic, was to become a tenured professor at the University of Notre Dame, but the Bush administration revoked his visa in 2004 and again denied him a visa in 2006. The government cited evidence that from 1998 to 2002, he donated about $1,300 to a Swiss-based charity that the Treasury...

Oxford, N.C. — Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby's bedroom in his mother's Granville County home is nothing, if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere – on the bed, on the floor, on the wall. But according to the United States government, the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15.

HAMMOND, Ind. — The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana issued a press release Thursday in response to media reports about the arrest of 16-year-old Ashton Lundeby of North Carolina, who is being held at the Juvenile Justice Center in South Bend. According to the release by U.S. attorney David Capp, his office “previously announced that a juvenile was arrested pursuant to a federal warrant. The arrest stems from a false bomb threat directed to Purdue University on Feb. 15 and similar threats directed to other schools. “The FBI, the Purdue University Police Department and the Tippecanoe County...

INTERVIEW WITH JUDGE NAPOLITANO: Napolitano understands that our personal, civil, financial and religious liberties are under attack – and he understands what true freedom is. When you want insight into how to turn our country around, the judge is among the best people to ask.

Okay, Pro Libertate has produced the most lucid review of L’affair Lundeby I can find. It is long and somewhat convoluted. Purists may be miffed. Here is the tantalizing money quote excerpt: My view is that Ashton — although demonstrably involved in hijinks that are hardly innocent Tom Sawyeresque stunts updated for the cyber age — is legally innocent; that there remain grounds for due process concerns in this case; and that we should never underestimate the troublesome creativity of federal prosecutors.

Speaking to an attorney today, however, he noted: “There is a wealth of information in what is not being said.” For example, in the press release, DOJ press contact Mary L. Hatton says: “That charge alleges a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 844(e), which prohibits sending false information about an attempt to kill, injure or intimidate any individual or to unlawfully to damage any building through an instrument of interstate commerce. This charge is unrelated to the Patriot Act.” What the state does not say is that it is highly probably Lundeby is being held under more...

Copyrighted. See link

Raleigh, N.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday a local mother's claim that her son is being held under the USA Patriot Act is incorrect.

Suffice it to say that if the abduction of a sixteen year-old, all-American boy under the auspices of the Patriot Act had occurred under the Bush administration, the lefties would be led by a hard-charging media, calling for the President to resign. No "truth commissions." No hearings. They would want blood.

Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby's bedroom in his mother's Granville County home is nothing,if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere–on the bed, on the floor,on the wall. But according to the United States government,the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15. The family was at a church function that night, his mother, Annette Lundeby, said. "Undoubtedly, they were given false information, or they would not have had 12 agents in my house with a widow and two children and three cats," Lundeby said....

Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled:Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.The “report” was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document...

Democratic candidate hopeful, Barack Obama, on the campaign trail in January of '08: Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect meby Anne Broache HANOVER, N.H.--Barack Obama may be leading the Democratic presidential pack in every major poll here, but that didn't dissuade the Illinois senator from a final early-morning rally with the Facebook generation. Clearly not content to leave their votes to the whims of online politicking, the Illinois senator stepped onto a stage fashioned in a Dartmouth College gymnasium, pulled an index card from his inside jacket pocket, and launched into a familiar set of talking points centered...

Have I missed something? Has the Obama Administration or the Democrats renounced and canceled the Patriot Act yet? For all the moaning they did for so many years, one would think it would have been tops on their agenda. Was it canceled and buried in a bill or is it another thing they decided was now okay? Just asking.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A leading US rights group has called on the US Congress to overhaul the Patriot Act and other national security programs that were passed in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. "The Patriot Act vastly -- and unconstitutionally -- expanded the government's authority to pry into people's private lives with little or no evidence of wrongdoing," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a 36-page report entitled "Reclaiming Patriotism," which was published Wednesday. The USA PATRIOT Act -- which stands for the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept...

In this episode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program, best of 2008 part #1 we take excerpts of some of the many interviews with national security experts from 2008. We invite you to listen to thought provoking discussions about issues such as terrorism, border security, the patriot act, and the liberal attacks taking place on almost all efforts to protect this country. Listen to my discussion with experts such as Dr. Walid Phares, Robert Spencer, Dr. James Carafano, and Ronald Kessler.

Leadership: President Bush reminded us this week of our triumphs in the war on terror despite critics who sought to deny him the tools. He's kept us safe since 9/11 and says luck had nothing to do with it.With scarcely a month left in his presidency, the president on Wednesday took aim at critics who maintain that the lack of another terrorist attack on American soil had little to do with his leadership and skill. According to them, we've just been lucky. In a speech at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., Bush noted that in the aftermath...

I am writing to you from abroad. I have decided to blog for the Americans, because I see now an imminent danger hanging over America - and the rest of the world as well, because the United States is now by far the strongest Power in the world. In 1933 a man called Adolf Hitler had seized power in Germany. He had promised “The Change”. He lived up to his promise - very easily in fact even thou the German bureaucracy, formed in the Era of the Empire, was unwilling to cooperate. He managed to do this because he jumped...

In fact, as much as he despised Clinton, Barr thinks President Bush is worse. "What George W. Bush has done to the fabric of our constitutional government, to separation of powers, to a government of limited powers is absolutely unforgivable," he said. That prospect is greatest in Barr's home state of Georgia. Obama is already running ads targeting an untapped pool of African Americans and younger voters. State polls suggest Barr's single-digit following pulls mostly from McCain. "If Barr can win 5 or 6 points of the total vote -- it's an if but it's conceivable -- then Obama could...

Florida banks say they are tired of playing cops, and some congressional leaders agree. The Florida Bankers Association (FBA) issued a statement Thursday in support of 18 members of Congress who signed a letter asking bank regulatory agencies to ease off on their enforcement of bank-related provisions of the Patriot Act and the Bank Secrecy Act. Parts of the two laws require banks to report the suspicious activity of their customers, especially when conducting international business. The FBA's letter said it has seen very little evidence that banks' reports on potential criminal behavior have deterred such activity or led to...

The importance of full disk encryption solutions for laptops and other digital media has been espoused a myriad of times by numerous security vendors like AlertBoot. WeÂ’ve all heard the stories regarding identity theft, and the importance of keeping Social Security Numbers safe. Then there are those unique stories that cause oneÂ’s jaws to slacken. Those unique, imaginative capers that remind me again and again why protecting data is no laughing matter. For example, SSNs could be used to build up your wealth two cents at a time. Wired.com is reporting that a man in California, Michael Largen, did exactly...

A massive government database holding details of every phone call, e-mail and time spent on the internet by the public is being planned as part of the fight against crime and terrorism. Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies would hand over the records to the Home Office under plans put forward by officials. The information would be held for at least 12 months and the police and security services would be able to access it if given permission from the courts. The proposal will raise further alarm about a “Big Brother” society, as it follows plans for vast databases...

HT: TradenCheese This is an excellent commentary by Judge Andrew Napolitano, who appears on FOXNews regularly. Please note the audio is a little lacking but you’ll have little problem hearing the words of truth. I do not know when this was first aired. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvu12z832Xc

The 50 U.S. states are holding more than $32 billion worth of unclaimed property that they're supposed to safeguard for their citizens. But a "Good Morning America" investigation found some states aggressively seize property that isn't really unclaimed and then use the money -- your money -- to balance their budgets. Unclaimed property consists of things like forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed dividend checks and safe-deposit boxes abandoned when an elderly relative dies. Banks and other businesses are required to turn that property over to the state for safekeeping. The problem is that the states return less than a quarter...

After entering the House of Representatives in 1995, Georgia Republican Bob Barr acquired a reputation as one of the most conservative members of Congress. It was Barr who in 1996 wrote the Defense of Marriage Act, which said states didn't have to recognize gay marriages performed in other states; it was Barr who protested when he learned the military allowed soldiers to practice Wicca. A former federal prosecutor, a firm social conservative, and a strong supporter of the War on Drugs, Barr doesn't fit most people's image of a civil libertarian. But in his eight years in Congress (he failed...

Americans' civil liberties as established in the Bill of Rights are seriously in danger, says Bob Barr. So much so, he says, that it prompted the Smyrna resident and former member of Congress to consider a bid for president as a Libertarian. "There is one set of issues that ought to be discussed during a presidential campaign - the Bill of Rights, what are our liberties, what are our freedoms and how can we protect these liberties," Barr said in an interview Monday at his office for his consulting firm, Liberty Strategies, near the Cobb Galleria. "I'm interested in working...

The lawyer for a man accused of being a major cocaine supplier for the Wichita Crips gang contends that a secret search of the man's house under the Patriot Act was illegal.In a recent motion to suppress any evidence from the search, defense lawyer Charles O'Hara argued that the Patriot Act was meant for "serious matters involving national security," not drug cases like the one involving his client, Tyrone Andrews."I thought that this Patriot Act was something passed to protect us all from these terrorist acts, and it would be used very judiciously," O'Hara said Monday. "This doesn't seem to...

When Congress passed the Patriot Act in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, law-enforcement agencies hailed it as a powerful tool to help track down the confederates of Osama bin Laden. No one expected it would end up helping to snag the likes of Eliot Spitzer. The odd connection between the antiterror law and Spitzer's trysts with call girls illustrates how laws enacted for one purpose often end up being used very differently once they're on the books. The Patriot Act gave the FBI new powers to snoop on suspected terrorists. In the fine print were provisions that gave the...

House Democrats left Washington for their second break since letting the Protect America Act expire on February 16th. There is a bipartisan majority ready to pass the Senate’s terrorist surveillance bill, but House Democrats chose to leave for two weeks without bringing it to a vote. We need a permanent terrorist surveillance law that 1) gives our intelligence agencies the tools they need to keep us safe and 2) protects patriotic American companies who helped the government prevent further terrorist attacks. And we need it now. Anything less is unacceptable. How can you help hold Democrats accountable for leaving Washington...

This is the latest canard making the rounds — I heard a radio talk-show guy say it this morning, and one of the endless stream of former federal prosecutors suggested it on MSNBC last night (I had switched channels following Jeffrey Toobin's botched explanation of the money-laundering offense known as "structuring" — the cash transaction amount that triggers the reporting requirement is $10K, not, as Toobin stated, $5K.) Currency transaction reporting requirements were enacted in the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, and money laundering was made a crime in overhaul of the federal narcotics laws that took place in 1986....

This is a report to share with fellow FReepers concerning the Patriot Act. Has anyone heard the name Randy Dees? Randy came to my attention, just recently, via information from a family member, who has known Randy (played music with him) approximately fifteen plus years ago. My family member informed me, one thinks there is nothing that can happen to them under the Patriot Act, but now there is the fate of Randy. My family member thought the Patriot Act was written to protect Americans from terrorists. Now, by the actions taken against Randy, my family member can only shake...