Barack Obama announced recently his intention to take a closer look at the Patriot Act and some of its defining salient points.
On the surface, the Obama administration appears to stand behind three provisions of the Act (installed in the wake of 911 when the country was at risk to terrorist attacks) which are due to expire at the end of the year.
Of particular interest to lawmakers and Civil Rights groups is the government's current legal right to access business records, monitor suspected rogue terrorists operating out of cells in the United States, and engage in surreptitious wire tapes of a dubious (and possibly illegal) nature.
Critics charge that the Patriot Act, in a nutshell, gives the intelligence community in the Government arena too much authority to snoop into the private lives of U.S. Citizens.
At issue is the rule of law and accountability.
The Justice Department has acknowledged the administration's desire to extend the three-year provisions aforementioned.
In spite of this hard stance, though, the president and government handlers have hinted that they may consider granting additional privacy protection if said provisions do not weaken the effectiveness of the Partriot Act.
Get those petitions out to Washington, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment