'Patriot II' Criticised As Illiberal By US Senators

by Leroy James, for LawAndTax-News.com, New York

14 February 2003

Governments all over the world seldom pass up a chance to increase their powers over their hapless citizens, and even in America, 'The Land Of The Free', this rule holds good. Along with the desire for control also normally goes a desire for secrecy, and the US Justice Department has seemingly given a worrying example of both tendencies this week over its drafting of a successor to The Patriot Act, nicknamed 'Patriot II', which would substantially extend its powers.

The proposed legislation, allegedly developed in secret within the Department, would broadly expand the government's surveillance and detention powers. Among other measures, it calls for the creation of a terrorist DNA database and allows the attorney general to revoke the citizenship of those who provide "material support" to terrorist groups.

Leading senators, including Patrick Leahy, ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, immediately chastised the administration for its secrecy. "As recently as just last week, Justice Department officials have denied to ... the Judiciary Committee that they were drafting another anti-terrorism package," said Leahy in a written statement. "There is bipartisan concern ... about the administration's lack of responsiveness to congressional oversight."

"I have serious concerns ... and hope the Senate will give this bill more scrutiny than the first USA Patriot Act," said Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold. The only senator to vote against the Patriot Act, he said that he also had been misled about the bill's existence.

The Justice Department internally circulated a confidential 120-page summary and text of the Domestic Security and Enhancement Act in early January. But the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity published a leaked copy of the bill on Friday.

Caught on the hop, the Justice Department quickly said, "It should not be surprising that the Department of Justice ... discusses additional tools to protect the American people."

The act allows the government to:

• Conduct domestic wiretapping without court order for 15 days following a congressional authorization of use of force or an attack on the United States.
• Secretly detain citizens.
• Deport any alien, including green-card holders, who are convicted of drug possession or an aggravated felony.
• Access a citizen's credit reports without a subpoena.
• Abolish federal court "consent decrees" that limit police surveillance of non-criminal organizations and public events.
• Criminalize the use of encryption software in the commission or planning of a felony.
• Apply strict gag rules to those subpoenaed by a grand jury.
• Collect DNA from suspected terrorists and indeed from any individual whose DNA might assist terror investigations.
• Extend authorization periods for secret wiretaps and Internet surveillance.
• Ease restrictions on the use of secret evidence.

"The administration is pushing everything to less and less judicial and public oversight," said Deirdre Mulligan, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic. "It's hard to shock me, but this legislation rises to level of shock of consciousness. Alarming as the Patriot Act was, these provisions are right off the edge."

The original Patriot Act is widely acknowledged to have been badly drafted, and was certainly passed in an emotional rush in the response to 9/11. Some commentators see the new proposals as little more than an attempt to clean up obscure parts of the original act. But some see them as an opportunistic power-grab by an over-weening bureaucracy empowered by public concern over terrorism.

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