Word: patriotism
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...Congress debates the fate of key provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the legislation continues to serve as a flashpoint for criticism of the Bush Administration. Yet, when opposition groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union make accusations that the act threatens or tramples our cherished First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, they stoop to the level of misinformation and fear-mongering that they claim their opponents inhabit. In reality, the statute sensibly closes loopholes that tied the hands of counter-terrorism agencies in the pre-9/11 world. One need not support Bush nor his anti-terror policies...
Instead of stripping away our rights of free speech and freedom from unwarranted government searches or seizures, the PATRIOT Act simply applies to anti-terrorism procedures the long-standing practices used in standard policing. Detractors might be hard-pressed to explain why, prior to the Act, authorities could apply for a roving wiretap (allowing surveillance over all a suspect’s communications) if a drug dealer switched cell-phones but could not if a suspected terrorist did the same. Similarly, the controversial “sneak and peek” provision of the Act—which grants warrants...
...past the Act’s Orwellian name and its connection to the controversial Bush Administration. Even Bush critic Richard Clarke found much to praise at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum last year: “I can’t find anything wrong with [the PATRIOT Act], and if I’d had it prior to 9/11, it would have been a hell of a lot easier to stop 9/11...
...what do you think about the Patriot Act being up for renewal...
...There were some things in the Patriot Act that were good. Some of the information training provisions, the updating of laws to account for today’s technology. Those are good things. But the provisions like going to libraries and bookstores and finding out what people are buying and checking out without adequate safeguards—that’s what needs to be changed. The sneak-and-peek searches are troublesome because of a lack of adequate due process. There are things that need to be changed. It shouldn’t just be renewed...