Thursday, May 26, 2011

Is There A Secret PATRIOT Act?

Has the Obama administration decided the USA PATRIOT Act means more than what it says it does?

The Bill of Rights...for those who have forgotten what it looks like.

After a classified briefing Congressmen Ron Wyden and Mark Udall proposed an amendment to the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act).  Read it carefully and tell me why it might be needed.

AMENDMENT intended to be proposed by Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. UDALL of Colorado)
13    (8) while it is entirely appropriate for particular
14 intelligence collection techniques to be kept secret,
15 the laws that authorize such techniques, and the
16 United States Government’s official interpretation of
17 these laws, should not be kept secret but should in
18 stead be transparent to the public, so that these
19 laws can be the subject of informed public debate
20 and consideration.

Why is the current administration's interpretation of PATRIOT Act provisions classified? Has Obama's DOJ taking a page from the Bush administration playbook? Hide the ball, rendition the suspects, refine the evidence, enhance the interrogation techniques?  How many secret memos are there? Why doesn't Obama trust the American people to know how he plans to apply the PATRIOT Act?  What are they hiding and why are they hiding it?  If neither Republican nor Democrat administrations can be trusted with the Constitution how about we scrap the so called PATRIOT Act altogether?