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Reprinted from Counterpoise Volume 8, Number 1/2, November 2003
Statements by representatives of the Justice Department and a new website purporting to "dispel the myths" about the controversial USA PATRIOT Act in fact create fresh myths about the law and give new life to old ones. All "myths" in quotation marks represent direct quotes from Justice Department spokespersons or the DOJ's website.
Myth #1: The PATRIOT Act "provided for only modest, incremental changes in the law." In enacting the PATRIOT Act, Congress "simply took existing legal principles and retrofitted them." (DOJ website)
Reality: The PATRIOT Act dramatically expands the power of the Executive Branch. Its provisions cannot be fairly characterized as effecting only "modest, incremental changes in the law." Among other things, the PATRIOT Act:
Empowers the FBI to obtain records concerning anyone, including people who are not suspected of any involvement whatsoever in criminal activity, espionage, or terrorism; the Act also prohibits those forced to disclose their records from telling anyone else about it (Section 215).
For the first time in US history, empowers the FBI to disregard the Fourth Amendment's usual requirements - including the probable cause and notice requirements - in some criminal investigations (Section 218).
Empowers the FBI to conduct searches in criminal investigations, however minor the crime, without notifying the targets of the searches until weeks or even months later (Section 213).
Expands the Attorney General's power to unilaterally demand the credit and banking records of anyone at all, including people who are not suspected of any involvement whatsoever in criminal activity, espionage, or terrorism (Section 505).
Introduces a definition of "domestic terrorism" broad enough to include groups like Greenpeace and Operation Rescue (Section 802).
Myth #2: The PATRIOT Act does not apply to Americans. ("This is limited to foreign intelligence," said Mark Carallo, a spokesperson with the Justice Department. "U.S. citizens cannot be investigated under this Act." Florida Today, September 23, 2002)
Reality: Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act can be used against American citizens. According to the text of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as it was amended by Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act:
(a)(1) The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or a designee of the Director may make an application for an order...