Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act

If you want to see the complaint with blackout…
The ACLU has posted a redacted version of their suit complaint. I should note that it was the ACLU’s decision and not the government’s to have the suit filed under seal, though their explanation seems reasonable to me.

In the course of their work, the ACLU has obtained and posted a list of National Security Letters obtained from Oct 26, 2001 to Jan 21, 2003.

With the usual disclaimer that I am not a lawyer, while I have concerns about Section 505 and wouldn’t mind seeing it repealed, I’m not sure the ACLU’s claim of “Now the FBI can find anything about anybody” is valid.

It does lower the barriers to getting information though. Prior law required an NSL being issued by an Assistant Deputy Director. Now they can be issued by a “Special Agent in Charge” at a field office. So there are more people empowered to issue NSLs, which are NOT subject to judicial review. Not even from the secret FISA Court.

I don’t have the prior law in front of me, but my handy copy of USAPA says that records listed in section 505 may be obtained if they are “sought for the conduct of an authorized investigation foreign counter intelligence purposes to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely on the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”

What worries me here is that 1) If the FBI treats terrorism the way they did Communism, there are going to be a *lot* of “authorized investigations” that are not directly relevant to finding terrorists; 2) There may be a problem depending on how wide the definition of “clandestine intelligence activities” is; 3) I have a significant problem with records being obtained in part because of US person’s first amendment activities and possibly “solely” from a noncitizen’s activity. Strangely, like the President, I believe that our rights are endowed to us by our Creator. Logically, no state is entitled to take those rights away from any human being and distinctions between citizens and noncitizens are not recognized by God. All of us have been created in the image of God and all people and all governments will be held accountable for respecting this fact.