Patriot Act Supporters Afraid

I don't know how else to characterize the decision of the Senate  Select Committee on Intelligence to close yesterday's hearing to the public, after having an open hearing on Monday.

Monday's hearing was open, but openness exposes committee members' differences, and apparently, for Pat Roberts and others, public scrutiny of differences over civil liberties is not desired.

We need to ask Pat Roberts, and committee members, exactly what they are afraid of.

Perhaps they are afraid to reveal there has been "little progress" in resolving committee member differences over the erosion of civil liberties.

At least one committee member, though, isn't afraid to speak out after yesterday's closed hearing:

"You can fight terrorism ferociously without throwing people's rights in the trash can," Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and a member of the committee, said after emerging from the meeting.

The ACLU has condemned the decision to close the hearing.

The American Civil Liberties Union denounced today's closed-door votes by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence of legislation designed to reauthorize - and expand - the Patriot Act. Included in the committee's deliberations are proposals to make the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions permanent, and to expand it by allowing FBI agents issue their own search orders with no advance court approval.

"These are proposals that demand a full, vigorous and public debate and vote, not secret meetings," said Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy. "If adopted, these broad new powers would sidestep time-honored checks and balances. Lawmakers should reject this reckless disregard for the Fourth Amendment."

What is at stake here, is the expansion of FBI powers, and the further erosion of civil liberties in this country. Again, from the ACLU:

The bill would grant so-called "administrative subpoena" authority to the FBI, letting the bureau write and approve its own search orders, without judicial approval in advance, for any tangible thing it deems relevant to an intelligence investigation. This power would let agents seize personal records from medical facilities, libraries, hotels, gun dealers, banks and any other businesses, without having to appear before a judge, and without any evidence that the people whose records are swept in are involved in any criminal activity. Such a move would grossly undermine the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

We need to demand from the committee members open hearings in full view of citizen scrutiny. Anything less than this, is a violation of the spririt of our democracy.

And, it is the fourth amendment that is at stake, with this proposed expansion of FBI powers.

And no, I don't see this as a repeat diary. I intend to post one each day after the committee meets on this vital subject.