PATRIOT ACT II USA POLICE STATE

Bouldernews: The sequel is scarier than the original
Last week, a draft version of a proposed "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003" was posted on the Internet by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit group that performs public-service journalism. The center's reporting revealed a "confidential" draft version of an 86-page bill that would help transform the government into the big brother you never had.

As proposed, the bill would prohibit the release of names of those being detained on suspicion of some form of terrorism. The draft document argues — as the Justice Department repeatedly contends — that releasing the names of those arrested in terrorism investigations could tip off terrorist groups about the feds' intelligence.

The bill would create a new and wholly unnecessary exemption to the federal Freedom of Information Act, which already allows the suppression of documents that might compromise national security. It would leave the government less accountable and, therefore, more prone to abuse.

So would a proposal to severely restrict public access to "worst-case scenario" reports produced for the Environmental Protection Agency. The federal Clean Air Act requires that private companies and government agencies that use potentially dangerous chemicals produce reports detailing the harm of catastrophic releases of these substances. The bill would allow only those citizens in the near vicinity of such chemical facilities to see (but not copy) the reports.

As drafted, the bill would enable the feds to collect DNA samples from people who are merely suspected — but not convicted — of being associated with terrorist groups. The bill would allow the government to see citizens' credit reports without getting a court order. And it would nullify a broad range of court-ordered restrictions on police spying.

Further, the bill would allow people in official positions to be imprisoned for revealing the existence of an anti-terrorism investigation. And it would enable the government to deport citizens who have joined or helped organizations the government has deemed terrorist. (The loose definitions of joining and helping pave the way to easier deportations.)

According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Capitol grapevine has been rife with speculation about the appearance of this bill, which would significantly strengthen the USA Patriot Act. Insiders have been calling the draft legislation the "Patriot Act II."

Initially, the Justice Department told the Center for Public Integrity that no new legislation was imminent. Confronted with evidence to the contrary, including a document indicating that the draft had been sent to the White House and the speaker of the House, the department said that no final proposals had been sent to the upper echelon.

That hair-splitting doesn't justify the unusual level of secrecy. And the explanation is not reassuring. The Patriot Act, which congealed in post-9-11 panic, was swept into law in six weeks. The final version of the Homeland Security Act, the most dramatic federal reorganization in decades, went from introduction (just after the November elections) to passage in a matter of days.

Some speculate that the Justice Department has been waiting for an opportune time — after the outbreak of war, for instance — to unveil its latest broadside on civil rights. Then, Congress might summarily approve the measure in a fit of quasi-patriotic bandwagonism.

Dubious government stealth, censorship and spying won't vanquish terrorism. But they would overwhelm our values. Congress should say so

The Village Voice: Resistance Rising!
With advances in technology and ever-increasing government surveillance, the situation has worsened since Orwell's imaginings of the future. —John Whitehead, the Rutherford Institute, November 4, 2002

Statewatch: ACLU
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today said that new Department of Justice "anti-terrorism" legislation goes further than the USA PATRIOT Act in eroding checks and balances on Presidential power and contains a number of measures that are of questionable effectiveness, but are sure to infringe on civil liberties.

"The new Ashcroft proposal threatens to fundamentally alter the Constitutional protections that allow us to be both safe and free," said Timothy H. Edgar, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "If it becomes law, it will encourage police spying on political and religious activities, allow the government to wiretap without going to court and dramatically expand the death penalty under an overbroad definition of terrorism."

CBS News: New Anti-Terror Bill: Critics Cry Foul (Feb 8)
The Justice Department is preparing to attempt to expand the
2001 Patriot Act to increase surveillance within the United States
while restricting access to information and limiting judicial review, a
nonprofit government watchdog group asserted Friday. The Center for Public
Integrity said it obtained a copy of the draft legislation from a government
source. The document, labeled "confidential," was posted on the organization's
Internet site along with an analysis.

Infowars: TOTAL POLICE STATE TAKEOVER

OMB Watch: Patriot Act II The Sequel
OMB Watch, a
Washington, D.C., public interest group, posted a short analysis of how
the
draft Domestic Security Enhancement Act, leaked from the Department of
Justice last week, could affect the public's right-to-know. The draft
bill
(dubbed Patriot Act II) would "greatly constrain" the free flow of
information and allow people in official positions to be imprisoned for
revealing the existence of an anti-terrorism investigation, the
analysis
points out. Other troubling provisions: It specifically would prohibit
disclosure of information about the investigation of detainees in
terrorism
investigations. (A federal district court in Washington, D.C., ruled in
January that the public is entitled to much of that information.) It
would
drastically reduce public access to information on "worst-case
scenario"
reports by facilities which use large amounts of hazardous chemicals
and
could cause catastrophic harm to nearby communities. It expands civil
immunity for corporations and employees that voluntarily provide
information to federal law enforcement agencies to assist in the
investigation and prevention of terrorist activities and it prohibits
the
government from releasing that information. (A similar highly
controversial
provision in the Homeland Security Act protects information on
vulnerabilities in the "critical infrastructure" but only at the
Homeland
Security Department.)