capoccia's Journal: Congressional Response to “Support the Freedom to Read!”

I have recieved an interesting response in regards to the fax I sent to Representative Patrick Tiberi from the ACLU's Action Center item, "Support the Freedom to Read!"

Dear Chris:

Thank you so much for your recent communication. I certainly appreciate this opportunity to correspond with you.

In your letter, you refer to an amendment offered by Representative Bernard Sanders (D-VT) to H.R. 4754, the Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2005. As you know, this amendment would prohibit funds used to make an application under section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 for an order requiring the release of library circulation records, library patron lists, library Internet records, book sales records, or book customer lists. On July 8, 2004, this amendment failed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

This amendment was offered in response to the USA PATRIOT Act, the primary law intended to protect Americans from terrorism, approved with overwhelming support in Congress in October of 2001 following the attacks of September 11, 2001. It is unfortunate that the PATRIOT Act has become something of a political football. Misinformation has lead to false commentary, especially regarding section 215 of the Act that ammends section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Interestingly, section 215 does not specifically apply to library records, but could include them, in addition to such documents as airline records, international banking records, and receipts of all sorts. Of note, these records have long been authorized for criminal activity investigations, for example, in the 1997 Gianni Versace murder case, and the 1990 hunt for the Unabomber. Since section 215 merely authorizes the court to issue orders in national security investigations, this amendment could have made libraries a safe haven for terrorist communications, including giving them unfettered access to the Internet. Furthermore, current law appropriately provides that each application be made to a judge of the court, shall specify that the records concerned are sought for an authorized investigation, and shall only be approved if the judge finds that the application meets all requirements.

Government's obligation is a dual one: to protect civil safety and security against violence and to preserve civil liberties. We can achieve both goals if we empower government to do sensible things while exercising oversight to prevent any real abuses of authority. Congress has exercised its oversight authority and, to date, has not uncovered the widespread abuses that some would have us believe are commonplace. Please be assured I take this oversight responsibility very seriously and will continue to monitor these issues closely.

Thanks again for taking a moment to share your thoughts with me. If I may be of assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

[signature]

Patrick J. Tiberi
Representative to Congress

Big Brother watches

[SiliconJesus]

And only 20 years late. I s'pose 2004 isn't as catch of a title as 1984. Van Halen would agree.

He's right though

[Marxist Hacker 42]

None of the abuses of Section 215 that we keep reading about in the popular press has actually happened.

In the mean time however, while the libertarians and the ACLU was completely distracted by the Patriot Act, the Bush Administration did the following abuses elsewhere:

1. Failed to protect the nation from a rogue military invasion from Mexico in support of the drug cartels.

2. Arrested thousands of people around the world, held them without legal counsel, declared them not to be covered by the Geneva C

Re:He's right though

[capoccia]

...added an extra 12% PER YEAR increase to the abortion rate

Where did you get the statistic about rising abortion rates? The most recent abortion stats from the CDC and the AGI only go to 2000.

5. Violated the right to free speech of Michael Moore by attempting to block Ferenheit 9/11.

I would put this more on the level of harassment than violation. Actually, all the attention probably helped boost the movie more. Also, iirc, this action was taken by some in the Republican party, but not directly by t

Re:He's right though

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Where did you get the statistic about rising abortion rates? The most recent abortion stats from the CDC and the AGI only go to 2000.

Hmm...wonder why the government only has that far, could they be hiding this like Bush has tried to hide so much else? The one I saw was the AMA- American Medical Association- but I can't find a link to it at work, the proxy nazis have declared the word "abortion" to be obscene.

But you are correct that the PATRIOT Act was just part of the administration's general scheme o