Fang-Face writes “There is a brief article at American Libraries Online that states:
the Department of Justice invoked Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act on October 15, 2003. This was after Ashcroft said it had never been used, but that was the time he said concerns about USAPA S215 were “baseless hysteria”.
The release also disclosed an internal FBI memo dated October 29, 2003, acknowledging that the provision can be used to obtain information about innocent people, which runs counter to the government’s previous assertions it can only be utilized against suspected terrorists and spies.
Whoa! An FBI memo says what we free speakers have been saying about USAPA all along? Who’ve thunk it?“
Whose nose is longer than a telephone wire?
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
Library group wants to know when agents have obtained records
June 25, 2004
Mike Schneider
“This is something that has been cooked up by people opposed to our efforts on the war on terror to scare the American public,” Corallo said.
But a document released this month under a Freedom of Information Act request made by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom to Read Foundation – the library association’s legal defense fund – and other groups indicated that Section 215 was used at least once after October 2003. The document doesn’t indicate where the request was made or what records were sought.
“Some of our concerns may have been well-founded, indeed,” Hayden said.
But Corallo said the document was merely a request for a hearing and doesn’t mean that a Section 215 order was granted.
“It’s proof of absolutely nothing,” he said.
Not me!
It wasn’t me who tried to set fire to his pants. I haven’t been allowed near a cigarettelighter or matches in MONTHS.