Senate to look at improper FBI spying

[ck4829]

A Senate panel wants to know if the Patriot Act needs to be revised to keep the FBI from illegally or improperly gathering telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners while pursuing terrorists.

FBI Director Robert Mueller was to testify Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was the panel's second hearing into a report earlier this month by the Justice Department inspector general that revealed abuses in the FBI's use of documents called national security letters to gather data.

The committee plans to hear April 17 from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is struggling to keep his job amid criticism of the NSL abuses and the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

"Last year the administration sought new powers in the Patriot Act to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate confirmation and to more freely use National Security Letters," Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in remarks prepared for Tuesday's hearing. "The administration got these powers, and they have badly bungled both."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070327/ap_on_go_co/fbi_patriot_act

[bryant69]

1. Bush is a Seriel Bungler

But in this case, I think he might be bungling on purpose.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[MADem]

2. Good. It's past time. Maybe they'll do something about "the list" too.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003637687_list27.html

The Office of Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially designated nationals" has long been used by banks and other financial institutions to block financial transactions of drug dealers and other criminals.

But an executive order issued by President Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks has expanded the list and its consequences in unforeseen ways.

Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay area to be issued today.

"The way in which the list is being used goes far beyond contexts in which it has a link to national security," said Shirin Sinnar, the report's author. "The government is effectively conscripting private businesses into the war on terrorism, but doing so without making sure that businesses don't trample on individual rights."

Dozen cases

The lawyers' committee has documented at least a dozen cases in which transactions involving U.S. customers have been denied or delayed because the customers' names were a partial match with a name on the list, which includes 3,300 groups and individuals.

No more than a handful of people on the list, available online, are U.S. citizens.

Yet anyone who does business with a person or group on the list risks penalties of up to $10 million and 10 to 30 years in prison, a powerful incentive for businesses to comply.....The lawyers' committee documented other cases, including that of a couple in Phoenix who were about to close on their first home, only to be told the sale could not proceed because the husband's first and last names — common Hispanic names — matched an entry on the OFAC list.....


The list is actually online: http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/

Here's the text version--are "YOU" on the list? http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/sdnlist.txt