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Ten Years After the Patriot Act, a Look at Three of the Most Dangerous Provisions Affecting Ordinary Americans
Ten years ago today, in the name of protecting national security and guarding against terrorism, President George W. Bush signed into law some of the most sweeping changes to search and surveillance law in modern American history. Unfortunately known as the USA PATRIOT Act, many of its provisions incorporate decidedly unpatriotic principles barred by the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. Provisions of the PATRIOT Act have been used to target innocent Americans and are widely used in investigations that have nothing to do with national security.
Much of the PATRIOT Act was a wish list of changes to surveillance law that Congress had previously rejected because of civil liberties concerns. When reintroduced as the PATRIOT Act after September 11th, those changes -- and others -- passed with only limited congressional debate.
Just what sort of powers does the PATRIOT Act grant law enforcement when it comes to surveillance and sidestepping due process? Here are three provisions of the PATRIOT Act that were sold to the American public as necessary anti-terrorism measures, but are now used in ways that infringe on ordinary citizens’ rights:
1. SECTION 215 – “ANY TANGIBLE THING”
Under this provision, the FBI can obtain secret court orders for business records and other “tangible things” so long as the FBI says that the records are sought "for an authorized investigation . . . to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court must issue the order if the FBI so certifies, even when there are no facts to back it up. These “things” can include basically anything—driver’s license records, hotel records, car-rental records, apartment-leasing records, credit card records, books, documents, Internet history, and more. Adding insult to injury, Section 215 orders come with a "gag " prohibiting the recipient from telling anyone, ever, that they received one.
As the New York Times reported, the government may now be using Section 215 orders to obtain “private information about people who have no link to a terrorism or espionage case.” The Justice Department has refused to disclose how they are interpreting the provision, but we do have some indication of how they are using Section 215. While not going into detail, Senator Mark Udall indicated the FBI believes it to allows them “unfettered” access to innocent Americans’ private data, like “a cellphone company’s phone records” in bulk form. The government’s use of these secret orders is sharply increasing -- from 21 orders in 2009 to 96 orders in 2010, an increase of over 400% -- and according to a brand new report from the Washington Post, 80% of those requests are for Internet records.
Today, EFF sued the Justice Department to turn over records related to the government’s secret interpretation and use of Section 215, regarding which Senator Ron Wyden, like Senator Udall, has offered ominous warnings: "When the American people find out about how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act,” said Wyden on the Senate floor in May, “they are going to be stunned and they are going to be angry.”
2. NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS
Among the most used -- and outright frightening -- provisions in the PATRIOT Act are those that enhanced so-called National Security Letters (NSLs). The FBI can issue NSLs itself, without a court order, and demand a variety of records, from phone records to bank account information to Internet activity. As with 215 orders, recipients are gagged from revealing the orders to anyone.
While NSLs existed prior to 2001, they were infrequently used. The PATRIOT Act lowered the standard making it easier for the FBI to use NSLs to obtain the records of innocent people with no direct link to terrorists or spies, and their use skyrocketed. According to the ACLU’s report on PATRIOT Act abuses, there were 8,500 NSLs issued in 2000 but approximately 192,000 issued between 2003-2006. All of these NSL’s led to one terror conviction, and in that case, the NSL wasn’t even needed.
Not surprisingly, EFF FOIA requests have found abuse of their NSL authority: “mistakes” that led to getting information on the wrong people, ISPs handing over extra or wrong information, and dozens of “exigent letters” that “circumvented the law and violated FBI guidelines and policies.” EFF has successfully challenged the NSL gag orders in multiple cases as unconstitutional under the First Amendment, but the overall scheme still survives to this day.
3. SNEAK AND PEEK WARRANTS
Section 213 of the PATRIOT Act normalized “sneak-and-peek” warrants. These allow law enforcement to raid a suspect’s house without notifying the recipient of the seizure for months. These orders usually don't authorize the government to actually seize any property — but that won't stop them from poking around your computers. Again, sneak-and-peek warrants could be used for any investigation, even if the crime was only a misdemeanor.
From 2006-2009, sneak-and-peek warrants were used a total of 1,755 times. Only fifteen of those cases—a microscopic 0.8%—involved terrorism. The rest were used in cases involving drugs or fraud.
These uses and abuses of the PATRIOT Act against ordinary Americans are only the tip of the iceberg. EFF has repeatedly documented how federal law enforcement agencies have abused our nation’s broken secrecy system to hide specific instances of illegal and unconstitutional conduct related to the PATRIOT Act. EFF’s Freedom of Information Act requests have painted a picture of “an [FBI] engaged in excessive illegal intelligence gathering.”
After ten years, it’s crystal clear that the “emergency” measure sold as a necessary step in the fight against terrorism is being used routinely to violate the privacy of regular people in non-terrorism cases, threatening the Constitutional rights of every one of us. And after ten years, EFF is even more dedicated to fighting against PATRIOT overreach, both in Congress and the courts. Help us in that fight by becoming an EFF member, so that we can work together in making the next ten years better for civil liberties than the last.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllThe Stalinists won the cold war.
Either that or Dirty Harry is working in a secret room beneath the White House.
Better still, Dirty Harry has been running the White House all along (and still is), for quite some time, now.
AMERICA
Where large scale farming is for greed and hubris; where crops are money and farm laborers are slaves and, most of all, expendable; the ones being kicked out of Alabama and Georgia might be the lucky ones.
“Guest workers”, ever hear such shit?
“My country tis of thee”; what does this mean, is it just for the elites of the country and not for “we the people? For that seems to be the case of the haves and have-nots.
“Sweet land of liberty”; Can we say this with our head held high? Nay! For if there is no law for all and money is justice and for a law that obscenely is called patriot act that harbors and hides what the elites would rather not have ought but themselves see?
“Of thee I sing”; the song has turned to a lament and there has not been for a time a reason or a cause that this sorrow would turn to a gladness that would light the heavens.
“Land where my fathers died”; this could be at any point in our history; yet it would be hard to be straightforward and claim that it has been a truly heroic past, present and maybe into the future.
“Land of the pilgrims pride”; Where is there any pride in the genocide of a host that kept them alive only to be systematically and with intent to eliminate? Pride entered and the fall cometh. Today, tomorrow? We know not the time; the cause happened and the effect will be.
“From every mountain side, let freedom ring”; It would be a difficult task to let anything ring on the side of every mountainside excepting if it were connected in someway to giant machines spurred on by insatiable greed with no thought to human health or wellbeing as the mountain is reduced to a molehill. The money is removed to a location where the mountain is not the view. The ones left behind at the mountain, do they hear the mountainside ring of freedom? We have left our freedoms at the cesspool of DC with the bankers and politicians. What the lyrics say grabbed my heart and soul when young and read the accepted words in histories, already the dumbing down of the schools was in progress and the future almost predictable. This is my revolt at being so gullible.
Tony
It's just amazing to me how history repeats itself. The whole reason for the Revolutionary War which started America, was to stop this kind of illegal search and seizure behavior. Back then, nobody cared about drugs but they sure as hell wanted to read your papers. That was the Stamp Act in which any Redcoat could do the same thing as the (Un)patriot Act does: Break into your house and go on a fishing expedition looking for documents that didn't have the crown's duty tax stamp of approval on them.
It really was an excuse to spy on your ass, imho, and raid your pocketbook at the same time. It was called an "Intolerable Act" and of course was a flagrant violation of the Englishman's Bill of Rights, as well as many Colonial Bill of Rights.
The other things "my fathers died for" were to get free of the Monopolies shoved down their throats, Like the British East India Company. Most things were imported in the 1770's so you couldn't even buy a button for your shirt without paying through the nose to a bunch of scam artist middlemen in a London market. If you used a button shipped from anywhere else, it was considered smuggled! Sounds just like today's oil companies and banks where I can get money or oil if I want it; I just have to pay ten prices and if I buy it from Cuba or Venezuela or Iran for seventeen cents a gallon, I'm "trading with the enemy" and will go to jail. That's freedom? That's a free market?
What a joke!
And if I mention this history to my fellow countrymen, all I get are blank stares. Most of them have ZERO knowledge about their own country.
I frequently have asked people to recite the Bill of Rights, which are the first ten amendments to the Constitution. No one has ever been able to do it from memory. Some can't even name one! This is the highest law in the land, and they've never bothered to read it!
How the hell are these "citizens", these "voters", ever going to stand up for their own rights if they don't even know what those rights are??????
No wonder the country slid all the way into a 1984 totalitarian police state. No wonder these Kangaroo Courts and pretend representatives won't lift a finger to protect the very document they swore to defend from all enemies foreign and domestic. It's because they have no fear of the people pulling their houses down any more like we did in 1775.
If we don't throw a wrench into the works soon, we'll all be shuffling our feet in a chain gang like the indentured surfs we really are. It's time to occupy the houses of the scum that refuse to repeal the Intolerable (Un)patriot Act.
The War is Over. The Unpatriot Act must be exposed as invalid on it's face, since that's what first justice John Marshal said is the case with any law passed that violates the Constitution.
Hey scumbags in D.C: What part of the fourth amendment, the highest law in the land, do you not understand?
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
TJ
TJ: Thanks for a great, and righteous rant! I'm with you all the way. In case you don't see it, what's fueled all the graft is an ingenious inversion of language. When torture can be called enhanced interrogation, when war is seen as the work of peace-keeping forces, and when any of us can be construed as a terrorist... then the foundation of law, itself, breaks down. Law, after all, is founded upon language; and the Orwellian inversion of this seminal tool which arguably separates us from the apes, is insidious (and ominous) beyond belief.
Hunger promotes a level of awareness, i.e. the proverbial wake-up call that may summon many past any and every Orwellian inversion of law, policy, word, and deed soon enough. Our stomachs are talking... and crowds are beginning to gather.
The wheel of time turns, and out of the compulsive control of the Carpicon brigade (mixture of Pluto transiting Capricorn, all technologies of surveillance, the pride of Empre, added to today's capitalism on Steroids) will come the burst of Aquarian freedoms, fairness and justice for ALL, rebounding round the globe. The true 2020 Vision!
Great insights SR,
Missed you.
Thanks.
TJ
All this but they can't get a full accounting from Wall St. or the Fed. They have a right to privacy. But of course they were granted "personhood", the rest of us lost ours in the name of national security. I think we should ask all the presidential candidates where they stand on the "Patriot" Act and vote accordingly.
They are building the list for the FEMA camps. But you don't believe it do you. That's just crazy, it couldn't happen in America, no way! The Patriot act defines a terrorist as anyone who commits any crime, including misdemeanors. Concentration camps were invented by the British, perfected by the Germans, and will now be used to bring the Americans in line with the new world order! Sieg Heil !
In an effort to answer some of my questions, I read a couple books that completely gobsmacked me. One, Waters Flowing Eastward outlines the world domination plan by the Jews and the other, The Family does the same but for 'Christians', both groups with the notion that 'they', the ones with all the money are the 'chosen' ones and the 'people' are cannon fodder. We're in a stranglehold by peoples that have garnered 'agents' in places of power to make sure we stay in and accept our station in life and to ensure we never get rich or have knowledge, both which brings power and that will not happen. Everything that's happening here and across the globe are part of their 'secret' but in your face plan to be the leaders of the New World Order. The Family is frightening but insightful and explains why and how religion has two different faces here...one for the wealthy and the other for the poor that God has found no favor in so the others have the right to do with us what they want, on His orders...right along with whether they should get that new lawnmower or not too. They just like Bush, talk with God every day and allow that He speaks back to them and the rest of us better accept what they say because of the source of their message....In Waters Flowing Eastward, the history is impressive and frightening but it contains the Protocols of the Elders of Zion which are disputed but you can see it in action everywhere so they deny it's authenticity but put the publishers out of business for publishing it....which is also on display in a British Museum. Read them, decide for yourself if you think these rich idiots on both sides of God are rational....if you find they are not, get a plan because one way or the other, they are going to continue this holy war and our sons and daughters are to fight it, literally so the cash keeps rolling in.
wtf
Maiden -
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a "disputed" historical resource in the same sense that alchemy constitutes a "disputed" specialty field of science.
Bill from Saginaw
Trevor Timm puts it far too kindly when he says the Patriot Act "passed with only limited Congressional debate" in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when media hype and public hysteria was at its zenith. There were no Committee hearings. There was no floor debate. No legislative history whatsoever exists.
This 200-plus pages of dense statutory text was passed and signed into law by President George W. Bush with truly breathtaking speed, no amendment to the original draft hastily submitted by the White House to Capitol Hill permitted, all while the smoldering rubble of the WTC was still warm. There was hardly a murmur of protest or whisper of concern voiced by any elected public official or mainstream media commentator. The House and Senate rolled meekly over, gutting the Fourth Amendment's fundamental privacy protections in a frantic atmosphere of sabre rattling, Freedom Fries, anthrax paranoia, and rampant Islamophobia.
Timm correctly identifies the Patriot Act's three major direct insults to the Bill of Rights: Section 215 warrants for tangible evidence rubberstamped by the FISA Court, national security letters which require no judicial oversight or approval at all, and "sneak and peak" search warrant executions. All of the evidence of just how extensive this police state snooping actually is - of course! - is highly classified. Nobody taking part in the secret investigative processes, nor anyone on the receiving end, dares even talk about it.
Three cheers for EFF and the ACLU for continuing to try to shed some light on Patriot Act abuses.
"He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance...... He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power."
Sound familiar from somewhere?
Bill from Saginaw
Hmmm
Ok all 3 of these "provisions" are flat out without a single doubt illegal because they violate the 4th amendment to the Constitution.
"
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Clearly all 3 violate 4th amendment. The entire Patriot Act is so blatant and brazen in its mockery of the Bill of Rights. Even its name is lie. No patriot would ever, ever put his name to such an evil, vile and criminal act.
People no probable cause ---no warrant---no warrant no search period. Therefore the "Patriot Act" is null and void. There is NO wiggle room, no exceptions, no buts in the 4th amendment. It is only a matter of time before the citizens of this great country start saying NO to this kind of unconstitutional and illegal actions on the part of the government.
"No patriot would ever, ever put his name to such an evil, vile and criminal act."
Whoa, I think you may be on to something here ddearborn. Maybe we need to publish the names of all the congressmen who voted for this treason against the Constitution and parade them as "Enemies of Liberty" since they most certainly had access to intelligence data showing that there were no WMD's in Iraq, and that Salem Bin Laden, Osama's brother and his family business "The Bin Laden Brothers Contracting for Business and Industry" had multiple ties and transactions to both the Bush family through Arbusto, later Harken Energy and the Carlyle Group chaired by George Bush Sr, and that a congressional inquiry was held to investigate that very suspicious relationship.
Enough time has passed, that we need to see all the documents via the Freedom of Information Act. If not the FOIA, then we need a bunch of Wikileaks to investigate this Unconstitutional behavior.
Hackers? You have your orders! And your sacred duty to save the United States of America.
TJ
TJ, Asange was on NPR today, every bank card, credit card Corporocracy, even PayPal has cut off all of his donaters way to get money to him to release the, over one hundred thousand important cables he's got to get to us and no way to pay for getting them released. Yo, Anonymous we need you all didn't you hear TJ? Please we need the Calvary now.
The FOIA has a time limit on the release of docs. Contact eff.org they'll get right back to you. The ACLU used to have a search for FOIA docs I don't know if it's still on their site, check it out. I remember the articles I wrote 5 and 6 years ago and all thought I was a real Psychopath lunatic, when it all came to fruition they never said word one to me. Nary an apology or you were truthful.
Insofar as publishing the names of Rep.'s and Senators, you'll get hit with a defamation of character suit, be wary. Michele "Cuckoo Cuckoo" Bachman, in 2008 on Chris Matthews said that members of the 'Democrat(sic) Party" need to be investigated for unAmerican activities, Chris first asked if she was serious, she replied yes then he asked if she ever heard of Eugene McCarthy she stared at him blankly and said no. The Grand Obstructionist Party are stupid which makes them dangerous.
Be very careful, you know as well as I do this site is closely moderated, I wouldn't use it for three years, today I came back to try and see what occurs, especially after this reply. Just be wary and read in between the lines and hope you don't get hit with a red triangle that is a double entendre because the real deal is it t'aint no good. I'll probably be banned by this reply. Oh well I've been at this, not Internert there weren't personal computers, Activism for 42 years so they have name, number and address, if I hear a knock I have steel toed combat boots to block my door. Later
ddearborn, haven't you ever read joint subcommittee hearings or bills that you may not feel like being bothered that day because you're particularly busy? In 2004 in a joint subcommittee hearing, trap and tap was shortened to TAPAC, it was called 'Data Mining' it's been occurring since 2002. It is frightening to read.
In the final subcommittee hearing in 2007, Jerry Nadler was incensed by the many Constitutional and Bill of Rights Violations by bush et al. The PDD's that were backdated by the CIA after constant harassment from cheney so their sweetie pies from the FEEBS couldn't be arrested for torture a violation of our Eighth Amendment and the UN Charter Geneva Conventions CAT3 Torture Article, and USC TITLE - 18 CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT , Chapter - 18 WAR CRIMES, if I remember pg 534. Use Thomas.gov left navigation panel go to Law Library of Congress.
Finally man it was 2008, can't remember bill number, titled FISA with Retroactive Immunity,this was because a whistleblower from AT&T informed on them that the US government used AT&T where he, the whistleblower, said he installed this equipment that tapped phones and trapped emails from John Q. Public, US citizens not gd terrorists, Fulthom St. Room 6A San Francisco, CA. The two other known Corporocracys are Verizon and Comcast. If this bill passed it meant we had no right to start litigation against those Corporocracys if Nay votes won we could sue for illegally redacting our Fourth. This was 2008 and Obama was stomping the yard for his run, he had promised us for months his vote would definitely be Nay, then Jr. Senator Obama made it back in time for the vote, he voted Yea. We never learn.
You better start using eff.org they'll keep you informed every minute. They even have the directors cell phone# and I used it because I was being terrorized by an intern at ProPublica.org it was 1:00am est he answered and helped me. eff.org, ccrjustice.org and ACLU.org use all three simultaneously and you'll be up on everything.
Cop, FEEBS, ICE, NSA,DHS, even IRS now, they knock on your door you best stick your foot there right quick slam and lock all doors and first floor windows, unless they actually have a subpoena which they'll lie about. You have no Fourth Amendment just to mention one of your Bill of Rights that are at minimum partially redacted.
Keep up on bills that hit the House the first time, if you can't navigate Thomas.gov, use the digital version of WaPo they have it all summarized for you take care. I've been at it for 42 years, still at it, but I'm so tired....
A week or so ago, I got into a major argument with someone who thinks judges serve warrants, and no one can searched, etc. without a warrant. I countered with a simple, "no, cops serve warrants, but they don't need them anymore." The guy flipped out, accusing me of making stuff up. I asked him where he's been for the last 9 years; he refused to believe cops, the FBI, or any "law enforcement" agency could wiretap phones, check emails, open mail... without a warrant. Unfortunately, the usual reply is, "I have nothing to hide, anyway." Well, guess what? We can't hide anything, unless we're millionaires.