Bush Urges Congress to Renew Patriot Act

[sabra]

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5062743,00.html

Bush Urges Congress to Renew Patriot Act

By NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush is pressuring Congress to renew the Patriot Act by highlighting the arrest of a man accused of plotting attacks on the Brooklyn Bridge and an Ohio shopping mall.

Portions of the Patriot Act - signed into law six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to catch other terrorists - are set to expire at the end of the year. The law bolstered FBI surveillance and law-enforcement powers in terror cases, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado for months and allowed secret proceedings in immigration cases.

Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates say the law undermines freedom. But Bush calls the act vital to tracking terrorists and disrupting their plans.

Bush was citing the example of the Iyman Faris case Thursday in his visit to the Ohio Patrol Training Academy in Columbus. Faris, a truck driver from Columbus, acknowledged in court documents that he met Osama bin Laden in 2000 at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan and provided operatives there with sleeping bags, cell phones and other assistance.

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[acmavm]

1. By all means renew that piece of shit. Make sure that American citizens

lose their rights and freedoms under the excuse that it's for the good of the country. Make us pay for the failures of the intelligence community and those that take money under the guise of being law enforcement officials. But make certain that the dirty deeds of the rich and powerful never, ever see the light of day. It's us schmucks that constitute the 'public' that are the biggest threat. Especially if more and more people start to open their eyes and see what the BFEE has done to our country.

[aden_nak]

2. Pure Coincidence: We arrested a bunch of "terrorists" last night.

There was a time that I would have beleived and accepted the fact that they confessed to attending an al-Queda training camp. And it may still even be true. But now I have no idea if it's fact or fiction anymore. But there were a rash of arrests just the other day. Pure coincidence, like I said.

[TahitiNut]

3. It's part of the Bushoilini approach to increasing employment.

We get construction jobs building larger prisons. We get jobs wearing cool uniforms as guards and police. More people get employed to snoop into the activities of their neighbors. Jobs. It'll be interesting when the police and guards are off-shored ... like in Iraq.