Washington- A group of congressmen led by Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich want to scale back broad federal surveillance powers granted to law enforcement after the Sept. 11 attacks.

They introduced a bill yesterday to repeal parts of the controversial Patriot Act that allow secret searches and wiretaps as well as detaining suspects indefinitely without meaningful judicial review, and that broaden the definition of what constitutes a terrorist group.

The real threat to our nation currently comes from within, when we begin taking away the very civil rights and civil liberty protections that made us great.

Hilary Shelton NAACP

Kucinich's bill also would overturn laws that require airport screeners to be U.S. citizens, repeal Justice and Homeland Security department exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act and toss out a law that lets the FBI conduct undercover investigations of religious centers.

Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said yesterday that the Patriot Act has helped law enforcement officers prevent terrorist disasters without infringing on civil liberties, and that a recent poll by CNN and Gallup showed 75 percent of the population supports it.

"The Congress, in its wisdom, saw how important it is to give law enforcement the constitutionally valid tools in the Patriot Act to protect the American people from terrorism," Corallo said. "I think they will continue to support our efforts to do everything we can under the Constitution to defeat, disrupt and disable the terrorists."

Attorney General John Ashcroft has spent recent weeks lecturing law enforcement groups throughout the country on the Patriot Act's importance, and the Justice Department recently set up the www.lifeandliberty.gov Web site to promote it.

But groups including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union say the Patriot Act gives law enforcement unconstitutional powers that threaten civil liberties. They endorsed Kucinich's bill yesterday, along with 18 Democrats and one Republican member of Congress.

"The real threat to our nation currently comes from within, when we begin taking away the very civil rights and civil liberty protections that made us great," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau.

"The Patriot Act and other measures went too far, too fast," added Gregory Nojeim, the ACLU's chief legislative counsel in Washington. "Members from both sides of the aisle are calling for corrections to be made."

To illustrate how the tide has shifted, Nojeim cited a July vote by the House to repeal part of the Patriot Act that allows the secret execution of search warrants and delayed notification of their targets. The measure sponsored by conservative Idaho Republican Rep. Butch Otter passed, 309 to 118.

Supporters of Kucinich's bill said more than 150 local governments, including city officials in Oberlin and Oxford, Ohio, and the legislatures of Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii, have passed measures to condemn the Patriot Act.

Kucinich tried to out-patriot the Patriot Act's supporters by calling his measure the "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act."

Its text begins with a quote it attributes to Franklin: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

©2003 cleveland.com

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