Affichage des articles dont le libellé est patriot act extension. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est patriot act extension. Afficher tous les articles

vendredi 27 mai 2011

Obama Signs PATRIOT Act Extension

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 27, 2011

On Thursday, Congress passed a four year extension of the PATRIOT Act. Lawmakers rejected all attempts to moderate aspects of the legislation that weaken the Fourth Amendment.

Obama used an auto pen machine from France to sign the extension. Provisions of the PATRIOT Act were set to expire at midnight.

Congress would have signed the extension earlier if not for the efforts of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who opposes the extension on constitutional grounds, specifically its violations of the Fourth Amendment.

In addition, Paul proposed an amendment that would have placed restrictions on the government’s ability to obtain gun purchase records. It was defeated 85-10. His second amendment, limiting banks on their reporting of suspicious financial transactions, was rejected 91-4.

“We dissolve from within when we give up our liberties,” Paul warned. “Millions of innocent citizens are having their records looked at.”

“It’s an important tool for us to continue dealing with an ongoing terrorist threat,” Obama said after a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) agreed to strip the extension of any amendments.

“The Speaker supports this common-sense proposal because this law has been crucial to detecting and disrupting terrorist plots and protecting the American people,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement.


Tipped.co.uk

jeudi 17 février 2011

Betrayed! Tea Party Politicians Vote for Patriot Act

Betrayed! Tea Party Politicians Vote for Patriot Act
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The American Dream
February 17, 2011

For a moment, imagine that you are awakened one night by a heavily-armed team of federal agents dressed in all black breaking into your home.  As you confront them, they hand you a piece of paper that says that your son has been identified as a “terrorist” and that they are there to take him away.  They pull your son out of bed, they throw him on the floor and the use a taser on him repeatedly.  Then they handcuff him and haul him away without telling you a thing about where they are taking him.  Your son suddenly has no rights because the Patriot Act supersedes the U.S. Constitution.  That’s right – because your son has been identified as a “terrorist” because of something that he has said on the Internet he no longer has any constitutional rights.  Your underage son is held indefinitely and is subjected to “enhanced interrogation” because he has been identified as a “threat”.  You are not able to get your son back for years even though it turns out that he is completely and totally innocent.  If you think that such a thing cannot happen to you then you are a fool, because this kind of thing is happening over and over across the United States and it is all legal because of the Patriot Act.

America is rapidly turning into a horrible Big Brother police state and most of our politicians are fully supporting this transformation.  In fact, the U.S. House of Representatives gave us quite a Valentine’s Day gift the other day when it voted to once again extend provisions of the Patriot Act that allow for domestic surveillance of American citizens, wire tapping of American citizens and warrantless searches of the homes of American citizens.

What was perhaps most disappointing was that a large number of “Tea Party politicians” cast votes in favor of renewing the Patriot Act provisions.

The majority of Americans were absolutely disgusted when the Bush administration instituted the Patriot Act and many other police state measures and they voted for Barack Obama hoping for something different.

Well, it turns out that Barack Obama has been even worse.

Have you been to an airport lately?  Yeah, those “naked body scanners” and “enhanced pat-downs” are a lot of fun, aren’t they?

Many Americans voted for Tea Party candidates during the last election hoping that they would be willing to stand up for liberty and freedom.

Well, it turns out that many of them caved when it came time to vote on the extension of Patriot Act provisions.

So is there anyone out there that we can vote for that will stand up for liberty and freedom?

The truth is that this is not a conservative issue and it is not a liberal issue.

This is an American issue.

But doesn’t the Patriot Act keep us safe from terrorism?

No.

Just the other day Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, admitted that even with all of our “security measures” the chance that the U.S. will be hit a weapon of mass destruction is 100 percent….

“There’s a probability of 100 percent that a WMD event will happen.”

But even if the Patriot Act could keep us “safer”, is that any reason for us to live the rest of our lives as “cattle” in a Big Brother police state that is becoming more like George Orwell’s 1984 every single day?

Are we willing to forever renounce being “the land of the free and the home of the brave” just so that we can feel a bit more secure?

The truth is that the U.S. government is not really protecting us anyway.  Our border with Mexico is wide open and millions of people have been pouring across it unchecked.  It would be ridiculously easy for any potential “terrorists” to smuggle dangerous weapons into this country.

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t

So please don’t try to tell me that the U.S. government is actually serious about national security.  Until the U.S. government is willing to do something about the border they should not be asking the American people to give up a single ounce of liberty or freedom for the sake of “security”.

But instead of securing the border and doing other practical things that would actually keep this country safer, our government has become absolutely obsessed with watching us, tracking us, listening to us, “assessing” us and controlling us.

In the process, the America that we all once loved is rapidly being destroyed.  Because of laws like the Patriot Act, our country now more closely resembles East Germany during the Cold War than the nation that our founding fathers originally established.

Government whistleblower Susan Lindauer, who has been arrested under the Patriot Act for protesting the Iraq war, recently authored an article in which she described why Americans should be much more frightened by the Patriot Act….

The American people are not nearly as frightened as they should be. Many Americans expect the Patriot Act to limit its surveillance to overseas communications. Yet while I was under indictment, Maryland State Police invoked the Patriot Act to wire tap activists tied to the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, an environmental group dedicated to wind power, solar energy and recycling. The DC Anti-War Network was targeted as a “white supremacist group.” Amnesty International and anti-death penalty activists got targeted for alleged “civil rights violations.”

Lindauer is speaking from experience when she talks about the Patriot Act.  Just hope and pray that you never have to go through what she had to go through because of the Patriot Act….

I cannot forget. I cannot forget how I was subjected to secret charges, secret evidence and secret grand jury testimony that denied my right to face my accusers or their accusations in open court, throughout five years of indictment. I cannot forget my imprisonment on a Texas military base for a year without a trial or evidentiary hearing.

I cannot forget how the FBI, the US Attorneys Office, the Bureau of Prisons and the main Justice office in Washington — independently and collectively verified my story— then falsified testimony to Chief Justice Michael Mukasey, denying our 9/11 warnings and my long-time status as a U.S. intelligence Asset, though my witnesses had aggressively confronted them. Apparently the Patriot Act allows the Justice Department to withhold corroborating evidence and testimony from the Court, if it is deemed “classified.”

I cannot forget threats of forcible drugging and indefinite detention up to 10 years, until I could be “cured” of believing what everybody wanted to deny— because it was damn inconvenient to politicians in Washington anxious to hold onto power.

At least there are a few members of Congress that attempted to oppose the renewal of the Patriot Act. For example, Senator Rand Paul recently explained why he opposes renewal of this freedom-killing law….

“The Senate yesterday proposed a three-year extension of the PATRIOT Act, a move that would not have allowed for any hearings, amendments, or debate. I objected to this deal. I realize that I might not have the votes to stop this bill, but we should at least discuss this in public as adults.

“We should have the opportunity to explain why the Constitution is being violated. We should talk about how we do not have to give up who we are in order to fight terrorism. It is not acceptable to willfully ignore the most basic provisions of our Constitution—in this case—the Fourth and First Amendments—in the name of ‘security.’”

Unfortunately, most of our other politicians have stood by and have done nothing to stop the horrific abuses that are taking place under this law.  A good friend of ours, Charlie McGrath, recently lamented this fact in a recent video….

What in the world is happening to this country?

One of the worst things about all of this is that Christians are actually some of the strongest supporters of the Patriot Act.

The mainstream media has brainwashed many of them into believing that the Patriot Act is “conservative” and that it is going to keep us safe from terrorism.  Somehow Christians have been duped into believing that the more power Barack Obama and his minions have to control our lives the safer we all are going to be.

But the truth is that laws like the Patriot Act are transforming this nation into a totalitarian regime.  We are becoming more like North Korea, Communist China, the USSR and Nazi Germany every single day.

As a Christian, I deeply oppose laws such as the Patriot Act.  The Scriptures warn us of a time when a future world government will attempt to brutally dominate all the nations on the planet.  Just read the book of Revelation some time.

Any law that takes our liberties and freedoms away is another step in the direction of totalitarianism.  Every time another new law like the Patriot Act gets passed we get closer to the time when government completely dominates and controls every single aspect of our lives.

Christians should be loudly denouncing any attempt to strip our liberties and freedoms away.  Christians should be loudly denouncing the destruction of our constitutional rights.

Transforming our government into a hardcore socialist police state and handing it all kinds of extreme “Big Brother” powers is not going to make us safer.

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We were sold a pack of lies by the Bush administration and now the Obama administration is trying to cram even more lies down our throats.

Many of us had hoped that Tea Party politicians would be different and would stand up for our liberties and freedoms, but now we can clearly see that many of them will not.

In the past, Americans would ready George Orwell’s 1984 and would think that nothing like that could ever happen in the United States of America.

Well, it is happening in the United States of America.

Are you going to stand up and say anything about it?

jeudi 10 février 2011

Big Sis Breaks Out “Heightened” Terror Alert as PATRIOT Act Heads to House

Big Sis Breaks Out “Heightened” Terror Alert as PATRIOT Act Heads to House
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Steve Watson & Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 10, 2011

Big Sis Breaks Out Heightened Terror Alert As PATRIOT ACT Extension Heads Back To House Floor 030211top

Defeat for the proposed extension of the so called PATRIOT Act in the House Tuesday night made national headlines, yet the extension is set to pass by the end of the week anyway as it is brought back to the floor for another vote. But just in case anyone in Congress reaches the sudden epiphany that they are effectively voting on the Enabling Act,  Big Sis Janet Napolitano has officially notified a congressional panel that the US faces the greatest possibility of a major terror attack since 9/11.

House Republicans wanted to extend three of the PATRIOT Act’s most draconian provisions by a further year. For anyone who values the Constitution and freedom per se, that was bad enough, yet Obama went one better, stunning many in the House by suggesting that the legislation be extended for another THREE years.

A prepared statement issued Tuesday afternoon stated that Obama “would strongly prefer enactment of reauthorizing legislation that would extend these authorities until December 2013.”

Republicans attempted to fast track the extension using an expedited procedure that allowed for just a 40 minute debate and no amendments. However, this failed to pass as under such rules a 2/3rds super majority is required.

Even so, the extension fell short by just 7 votes, making it extremely likely that the bill will pass when it is brought back the floor either today or tomorrow. Under standard rules, only a simple majority will be needed for the extension to pass.

The ACLU describes the three provisions that would be extended under the bill:

Section 215 of the Patriot Act authorizes the government to obtain “any tangible thing” relevant to a terrorism investigation, even if there is no showing that the “thing” pertains to suspected terrorists or terrorist activities. This provision is contrary to traditional notions of search and seizure, which require the government to show reasonable suspicion or probable cause before undertaking an investigation that infringes upon a person’s privacy. Congress must ensure that things collected with this power have a meaningful nexus to suspected terrorist activity or it should be allowed to expire.

Section 206 of the Patriot Act, also known as “roving John Doe wiretap” provision, permits the government to obtain intelligence surveillance orders that identify neither the person nor the facility to be tapped. This provision is contrary to traditional notions of search and seizure, which require government to state with particularity what it seeks to search or seize. Section 206 should be amended to mirror similar and longstanding criminal laws that permit roving wiretaps, but require the naming of a specific target. Otherwise, it should expire.

Section 6001 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, or the so-called “Lone Wolf” provision, permits secret intelligence surveillance of non-US persons who are not affiliated with a foreign organization. Such an authorization, granted only in secret courts is subject to abuse and threatens our longtime understandings of the limits of the government’s investigatory powers within the borders of the United States. This provision has never been used and should be allowed to expire outright.

In addition, Senate Democrats are set to fast track the companion legislation (S. 149) to the House bill, as they seek to bypass the committee process and push the bill straight to the floor.

Unless the likes of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich can attract scores of their peers to change their votes and defect from the party agenda, then the passage of the legislation is assured.

Also noteworthy is the fact that several representatives who ran on a Tea Party platform actually voted FOR the extension to the PATRIOT Act yesterday.
Slate’s Dave Weigel notes that high profile Tea Partyers like Michele Bachmann, Kristi Noem, and Allen West all voted for the extension. “I break this out because there’ll be a temptation to say ‘the Tea Party and its isolationist elements beat the reauthorization,’ and that’s not quite it,” he writes.

In addition, Ryan Hecker, a Houston lawyer and tea-party organizer, told the Wall Street Journal he believes the act has helped curb terrorism and “the movement should remain agnostic.”

This once again highlights the fact that the Tea Party has been almost entirely co-opted by the establishment GOP. It is now a bloated unrecognizable shadow of the Libertarian grassroots movement that was founded on the need to expel such freedom destroying legislation for good.

  • A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Tea Party or no Tea Party, Republicans and Democrats alike are working in tandem to destroy what is left of the Constitution.

One reason bipartisan support for reauthorization has grown, according to the Journal, is the perceived threat of homegrown terrorism, seen in the absurd Times Square firecracker and underwear non-bombings last year. Both questionable non-events and other over hyped and completely manufactured threats have led directly to programs such as the “See Something, Say Something” campaign- a literal citizen spy operation overseen by the DHS.

It seems that Big Sis is on the march again, this time to ensure that the PATRIOT Act gets extended.

AFP reports that Janet Napolitano has directly told the congressional Security Committee that the United States is facing “heightened” threats of attacks from extremists. “And in some ways, the threat today may be at its most heightened state since the attacks nearly 10 years ago.” Napolitano is quoted as saying.

She noted that there is “an increased emphasis on recruiting Americans and Westerners to carry out small scale attacks.”

Booga booga, better re-authorize the power to let the federal government keep a track of exactly what library books everyday Americans are checking out. You wouldn’t want to be the elected representative who tips the scales to allow another 9/11 now would you?

We have previously documented how such terror threats have been routinely hyped purely for political purposes.

Never forget that the media and the government have been totally discredited over and over again by their complicity in issuing phony terror alertsdesigned to manipulate elections and frighten the public into slavish acquiescence.

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Just as former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge admitted that DHS would issue fake terror alerts shortly before elections in a bid to influence the outcome during the Bush era, the Obama administration is mimicking the same tactic.

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.

mercredi 9 février 2011

Patriot Act Extension Fails

Patriot Act Extension Fails
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Lisa Mascaro
The Los Angeles Times
February 9, 2011

The Republican-led House on Tuesday failed to pass a short-term extension of the USA Patriot Act favored by GOP leaders, an unexpected political setback that shows the difficulty the party faces in keeping control of their new majority, with its legion of tea party-inspired members.

Key provisions of the terrorist surveillance law expire at the end of the month, and a coalition of veteran Republican lawmakers and conservative new members blocked passage of a measure that many tea party activists see as federal government over-reach into private affairs.

The unexpected turn of events will require the White House, which is seeking to extend the Sept. 11-era bill through 2013, to work with congressional leaders to devise a new strategy for passage.

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