Obama Signs Extension of Patriot Act

With the health care debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually unreported that the Barack Obama administration supported the renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA Patriot Act, the same bill that many democrats considered as infringement on basic freedoms.

President Barack Obama signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation’s main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act. Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday without Obama’s signature Saturday.

The Patriot Act, which was adopted in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, expands the government’s ability to monitor Americans in the name of national security.

Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will: Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones; allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations; and permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

Obama’s signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure.

The Senate also approved the measure, with privacy protections cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote supermajority to pass them. Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.

As Susan Anne Hiller points out in a column for BigGovernment dot com, the reauthorization does not include any reforms to the current Patriot Act–an odd display of agreement and submission to Bush-era policy–even though the Democrats had the numbers to reform the Act.

“The continuation of the current Patriot Act signals that Democrats are fearful of further controversy in light of American’s distrust and poor approval ratings of the Democrat-controlled Congress,” Hiller writes.

She also notes that Democrats could have modified the Patriot Act, but decided not to do it. Contrary to the outrage against Bush for passing the Patriot Act, now organizations like the ACLU is quietly voicing its differences.

Back in 2006, Senator Obama himself criticized the Patriot Act’s compromise, but had no issue, as President, signing the identical Act he wanted reforms on.  In February of 2006, Obama said the Patriot Act invaded the people´s privacy without cause or suspicion.

Although at the time Senator Obama ended supporting it for political expediency, he urged his colleagues on the Senate floor to work on ways “to improve the civil liberties protections in the Patriot Act after it is reauthorized.”

The Americano / Agencies

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