(Washington, D.C.) In a closed session last week, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted to reauthorize and expand the USA PATRIOT Act, which came into law weeks after 9/11. Originally, the Patriot Act was set to expire after five years but the Bush administration and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez are seeking to make the law permanent while expanding its reach and scope. In its current form the Patriot Act violates at least six of the amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights. Under the act, law enforcement may conduct no-notice searches of residences and businesses; conduct roving wiretaps; or seize personal files such as medical, financial, employment and even library lending history. Additionally, the PATRIOT Act has led to peaceful community groups being investigated as terrorist cells. While President George W. Bush credits the PATRIOT Act for securing over 200 convictions, the majority of those convictions have little to do with terrorism. The PATRIOT Act, originally crafted to protect the nation from terrorists, has been used to fight corruption in Nevada strip clubs; was used to track those responsible for computer crimes; and has even been effective to foreign countries in fighting groups such as HAMAS. Generally, the PATRIOT Act has been a failure within its defined purpose. The new version of the PATRIOT Act, already approved by a Senate committee, will expand the reach of the FBI by giving individual agents "administrative authority" to create and approve their own search warrants. With no checks in place to prevent abuse, violations of the law would go unnoticed under the expansion of the already ineffective law.
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