[D66] Obama signs extension of Patriot Act spy powers

[Antid Oto]

Obama signs extension of Patriot Act spy powers
By Andre Damon
28 May 2011

US President Barack Obama signed a renewal of three of the most notorious
provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act Friday, meaning that the whole of the act will
remain in effect without modification through 2015.

The move reinforces once again the wholehearted support by the Democratic Party
for the policies of domestic spying, torture, and violation of democratic
rights, adopted during the Bush administration and continued by Obama.

The provisions were set to expire Thursday, compelling Obama, who is currently
making a tour of Europe, to sign the bill electronically from France in order to
avoid any lapse of the legal authority for US intelligence agencies to spy on
the American people.

Such a gap would have no effect on ongoing investigations, but would have called
into question additional authorization of spying under the act's provisions.
Regardless, Obama took extraordinary measures to make sure the bill was signed
before midnight, getting up at 5:45 a.m. French time to sign the bill
electronically with an autopen.

Obama signed the bill only hours after the Senate voted to approve it on a vote
of 72 to 23, following a vote earlier in the day in the House of
Representatives, where it passed by 250 to 153. In Thursday's Senate vote, 30
out of 51 Senate Democrats voted for the bill, along with 41 Republicans and
independent Joseph Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats.

For the past few days, Obama had a member of his staff on call to fly a copy of
the bill to Europe, but the signing was held up by vocal opposition on the
Senate floor from Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, who opposed the
bill on libertarian grounds.

The first of the three provisions allows “roving wiretaps,” which are
authorizations to intercept all the communications of a suspect, not just
specific phone numbers or Internet addresses. Another portion, the so called
“library provision,” or section 215, allows the government nearly unlimited
access to business, purchase, and travel records of suspects. A third component,
called the “lone wolf” provision, authorizes surveillance of individuals who are
not suspected of connections with foreign organizations.

The USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law on October 26, 2001, as a key component
of the assault on democratic rights initiated by the Bush Administration
following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The bill broadened the
powers of police and intelligence agencies to monitor communications and obtain
medical, financial and business records.

Although most of the hundreds of provisions in the bill were made permanent on
its passage, certain of the most invasive provisions were set to expire, or
“sunset,” within four years. At the time, a of number Democrats feigned
opposition to some of the bill's proposal, but the inclusion of sunset
provisions enabled them to accept the bill while claiming it was a temporary
measure.

With the renewal of the three key provisions – among the most sweeping powers
granted by the bill -- the entire content of the act is still in place, nearly
ten years later.

The initial renewal was made in two parts, first in 2005 and then in 2006, with
the latter bill extending the authorizations for roving wiretaps and warrantless
access to business records.

These controversial provisions were set to expire in 2010, but were reauthorized
by the Democratic-controlled Congress for one year. At the time, a section of
Democratic lawmakers were calling for cosmetic modifications to the law.

Now, following the 2010 elections, Obama has a more secure political base from
which to extend the provisions for a longer period, and the Democrats have
dropped nearly all pretenses to supporting even minor changes to the bill.

The Patriot Act was one of the most hated emblems of the Bush Administration,
and contributed to the widespread popular hostility that enabled the Democrats
to win congressional victories in 2006 and 2008, and propelled Obama to the
presidency.

Prior to his election, Obama styled himself as an opponent of the very
provisions he has now renewed for a second time. Speaking from the Senate floor
on December 15, 2005, Obama condemned the so-called “gag orders” authorized by
the Patriot Act, saying, “if someone wants to know why their own government has
decided to go on a fishing expedition through every personal record or private
document - through library books they've read and phone calls they've made -
this legislation gives people no rights to appeal the need for such a search in
a court of law. No judge will hear their plea, no jury will hear their case.
This is just plain wrong.”

In 2007, in the run-up to his presidential campaign, Obama called for removing
the most egregious sections of Patriot Act, saying, “No more illegal
wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on
citizens who are not suspected of a crime.”

But according to a report released by the Department of Justice earlier this
month, the use of the National Security Letters that Obama claimed to oppose
doubled last year, from 6,114 individuals to 14,212 individuals.

The renewal of the Patriot Act provision, this time for four years, and with the
enthusiastic support of the Obama Administration, refutes once more the claims
that Obama and the Democrats represent any sort of political alternative to the
policies of the Bush presidency. It was particularly notable that it was left to
Paul, one of the most right-wing members of the Senate, to posture as the
defender of civil liberties against the Democrats and Obama.

The Patriot Act was a cornerstone of the Bush Administration's policies, which,
based on the claims it was engaged in a “war on terror,” laid the foundation for
perpetual war, and the essentially unlimited dominion of the state over civil
liberties. This entire framework, from the war on terror, to the policy of
torture, to illegal detention and wiretapping, was appropriated completely by
the Obama Administration.

The extension of the bill is an expression of the ongoing political attack on
the working class. While pursuing policies deliberately calculated to create
high unemployment, the closures of schools, the layoff of hundreds of thousands
of government workers, the Obama administration is laying the foundations to
combat political opposition through police state measures.

When a mass movement against the Obama administration's policies develops, there
can be no doubt that the repressive machinery reauthorized in the Patriot Act
will be set into motion against the danger of mass political opposition from
working people.

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/patr-m28.shtml