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House Defies Bush on Patriot Act
(Andrew Taylor, The Associated Press, 15 June 2005)
In a slap at President Bush, lawmakers voted Wednesday to block the Justice Department and the FBI from using the Patriot Act to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips. . . . The House voted 238-187 despite a veto threat from Bush to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects. . . . The vote reversed a narrow loss last year by lawmakers concerned about the potential invasion of privacy of innocent library users. They narrowed the proposal this year to permit the government to continue to seek out records of Internet use at libraries. . . . [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Don't let this tiny victory for freedom fool you into thinking that Congress might possibly do something right for a change. They are still allowing the FBI to track the Internet use of library patrons. Just because they can't see what books you've been checking out doesn't mean the government isn't using your local library to spy on you. Tracking the Internet trails of their patrons will reveal far more to the screwheads in Washington than the last five books you checked out. . . . Always keep in mind that unless you are using some type of anonymzing software, everything you do on the Net is done in a public square. Hey, the FBI has admitted reading your email with their Carnivore system, not to mention the data-mining all of the free email services like Hotmail and Yahoo are doing with your assumedly private communications . . . and the same goes for IMs . . . all of your words that flow through the Net are all being considered by the great AIs in the basement of NSA headquarters, otherwise known as the belly of the Beast.] . . . "This is a tremendous victory that restores important constitutional rights to the American people," said Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., the sponsor of the measure. He said the vote would help "rein in an administration intent on chipping away at the very civil liberties that define us as a nation." . . . Congress is preparing to extend the Patriot Act, which was passed quickly in the emotional aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Then, Congress included a sunset provision under which 15 of the law's provisions are to expire at the end of this year. . . . Supporters of rolling back the library and bookstore provision said that the law gives the FBI too much leeway to go on fishing expeditions on people's reading habits and that innocent people could get tagged as potential terrorists based on what they check out from a library. . . . "If the government suspects someone is looking up how to make atom bombs, go to a court and get a search warrant," said Jerold Nadler, D-N.Y. . . . Supporters of the Patriot Act countered that the rules on reading records are a potentially useful tool in finding terrorists and argued that the House was voting to make libraries safe havens for them. . . . "If there are terrorists in libraries studying how to fly planes, how to put together biological weapons, how to put together chemical weapons, nuclear weapons ... we have to have an avenue through the federal court system so that we can stop the attack before it occurs," said Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla. . . . [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Hey Tom, wake up! It's the 21st century, dude. You ought to check out this thing called the Internet. If "terrorists in libraries" are keeping you awake at night, I'm afraid you're going to freak out when you see how old fashioned it has become to use book to learn a dastardly trade.] . . . In the meantime, a number of libraries have begun disposing of patrons' records quickly so they won't be available if sought under the law. . . . Authorities have gained access to records through voluntary cooperation from librarians, Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller said.

posted by LoZo 10:05 AM