Congress renews Patriot Act for one month

[DevilDog#1]

Provisions of law had been set to expire Dec. 31; bill now goes to Bush

NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 8:11 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2005
WASHINGTON - Congress gave the Bush administration's anti-terrorism powers one more month of life Thursday, with work finished by a lone senator sitting in the virtually empty Senate chamber.

Congress also finalized a defense spending bill that funnels extra money to the Gulf Coast and Iraq. The GOP-run Congress completed the two bills in a scramble to finish a year complicated by standoffs with Democrats and disagreements among Republicans.

The House had passed a one-month extension of the Patriot Act on Thursday and sent it to the Senate, which passed it Thursday evening, ahead of the Dec. 31 expiration date of some anti-terror law enforcement provisions.

Approval in the House came on a voice vote in a nearly empty chamber after Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, refused to agree to a six-month extension the Senate had cleared several hours earlier.

“We’re happy to agree to a shorter-term extension of the Patriot Act. The important thing is to strike the right balance between liberty and security,” said Rebecca Kirszner, an aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The Senate passage marked the latest step in a stalemate that first pitted Republicans against Democrats in the Senate, then turned into an intramural GOP dispute.

Plea from Bush
Without action by Congress, several provisions of the law enacted in the days following the 2001 terror attacks were due to expire. Bush has repeatedly called on Congress not to let that happen.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Bush would sign a one-month extension.

In a statement Thursday, the president said, “I will work closely with the House and Senate to make sure that we are not without this crucial law for even a day.”

The Senate vote Wednesday night marked a turnabout for GOP leaders, who had long insisted they would accept nothing less than a permanent renewal of the law. The House approved the measure earlier this month, but a Democratic-led filibuster blocked passage in the Senate, with critics arguing the bill would shortchange the civil liberties of innocent Americans.

Passage of a one-month extension means lawmakers will debate the issue early in 2006, and is certain to require concessions to the Senate critics who are seeking greater privacy protections.

The Senate's six-month extension came Wednesday night as Bush left Washington believing that Congress would not let the provisions expire.

‘We're still under threat’
“It appears to me that the Congress understands we got to keep the Patriot Act in place, that we’re still under threat,” Bush said just before boarding a helicopter headed to Camp David, Md., for a long holiday weekend with his family.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who had led the Democratic filibuster against permanently renewing most of the law’s expiring provisions, said the six-month extension would “allow more time to finally agree on a bill that protects our rights and freedoms while preserving important tools for fighting terrorism.”

Most of the Patriot Act — which expanded the government’s surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers — was made permanent when Congress overwhelmingly passed it after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington.

Safeguards on the Patriot Act
Making permanent the rest of the Patriot Act powers, like the roving wiretaps that allow investigators to listen in on any telephone and tap any computer they think a target might use, has been a priority of the administration and Republican lawmakers.

Some civil liberties safeguards had been inserted into legislation for renewing that law but Senate Democrats and a small group of GOP senators blocked it anyway, arguing that more safeguards were needed.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he had no choice but to accept a six-month extension in the face of a successful filibuster and the Dec. 31 expiration date. “I’m not going to let the Patriot Act die,” Frist said.

Bush had indicated that he would sign the six-month extension. “The work of Congress on the Patriot Act is not finished,” Bush said. “The act will expire next summer, but the terrorist threat to America will not expire on that schedule. I look forward to continuing to work with Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act.”

The six-month “extension ensures that the tools provided to law enforcement in terrorist investigations in the Patriot Act remain in effect while Congress works out the few differences that remain,” said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., one of a small group of Republicans who crossed party lines to block the Patriot Act legislation.

Republicans who had pushed for legislation that would make most of the expiring provisions permanent said the agreement only postpones the ongoing arguments over the Patriot Act for six months. “We’ll be right back where we are right now,” said a clearly frustrated Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562008/

Interesting way to get an extension.

[DevilDog#1]

Sixteen provisions of the USA Patriot Act are set to expire Dec. 31 if not renewed. The House and Senate voted Thursday to extend the anti-terrorism law until Feb. 3. The extension has to be signed by
President Bush.

The provisions are:

Section 201 — Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to terrorism.

Section 202 — Gives federal officials the authority to intercept wire, spoken and electronic communications relating to computer fraud and abuse offenses.

Subsection 203(b) — Permits the sharing of grand jury information that involves foreign intelligence or counterintelligence with federal law enforcement, intelligence, protective, immigration, national defense or national security officials

Subsection 203(d) — Gives foreign intelligence or counterintelligence officers the ability to share foreign intelligence information obtained as part of a criminal investigation with law enforcement.

Section 204 — Makes clear that nothing in the law regarding pen registers — an electronic device which records all numbers dialed from a particular phone line — stops the government's ability to obtain foreign intelligence information.

Section 206 — Allows federal officials to issue roving "John Doe" wiretaps, which allow investigators to listen in on any telephone and tap any computer they think a suspected spy or terrorist might use.

Section 207 — Increases the amount of time that federal officials may watch people they suspect are spies or terrorists.

Section 209 — Permits the seizure of voicemail messages under a warrant.

Section 212 — Permits Internet service providers and other electronic communication and remote computing service providers to hand over records and e-mails to federal officials in emergency situations.

Section 214 — Allows use of a pen register or trap and trace devices that record originating phone numbers of all incoming calls in international terrorism or spy investigations.

Section 215 — Authorizes federal officials to obtain "tangible items" like business records, including those from libraries and bookstores, for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.

Section 217 — Makes it lawful to intercept the wire or electronic communication of a computer hacker or intruder in certain circumstances.

Section 218 — Allows federal officials to wiretap or watch suspects if foreign intelligence gathering is a "significant purpose" for seeking a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act order. The pre-Patriot Act standard said officials could ask for the surveillance only if it was the sole or main purpose.

Section 220 — Provides for nationwide service of search warrants for electronic evidence.

Section 223 — Amends the federal criminal code to provide for administrative discipline of federal officers or employees who violate prohibitions against unauthorized disclosures of information gathered under this act.

Section 225 — Amends FISA to prohibit lawsuits against people or companies that provide information to federal officials for a terrorism investigation.

Source

Something for general consumption.

[Lucky]

whoa they finally updated and renewed it

[BADDOG]

Fascinating article DD!!!!

Warm Regards bro!!!!

[DevilDog#1]

Bang on quote

[BADDOG]

No government in history or any where in the world is without it's dark side and dark deeds go hand in hand with politics, it's not the way it should be but rather it's just the way it is.......


Regards