From: Goldman, Ava (Ava_Goldman@CalPERS.CA.GOV)
Date: Wed Oct 22 2003 - 09:01:57 PDT
Message-ID: <76E44833A5BB9A4ABBAF4AADBDE1D7B80600C2A6@hqs077.calpers.ca.gov> From: "Goldman, Ava" <Ava_Goldman@CalPERS.CA.GOV> Subject: RE: SLA-SF: FW: Sen. Feinstein on USA PATRIOT Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 09:01:57 -0700
Karin,
I'm doing so now.
Ava Goldman, Senior Librarian, Planning and Research Division, California
Public Employees' Retirement System, 400 P Street, Lincoln Plaza,
Sacramento, CA 95814-5345, 916-658-1533, fax 916-658-1279,
ava_goldman@calpers.ca.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: Karin Zilla [mailto:karinz@certifiedemployment.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 8:53 AM
To: SLA-SF
Subject: SLA-SF: FW: Sen. Feinstein on USA PATRIOT
Will someone please forward this also to the NOCALL list? I seem to have
lost my capability. Thanks. --Karin Zilla
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-calix@listproc.sjsu.edu [mailto:owner-calix@listproc.sjsu.edu]On
Behalf Of Mark Smith
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 8:43 AM
To: calix@listproc.sjsu.edu
Subject: FW: Sen. Feinstein on USA PATRIOT
As per Karen's posting Monday, an article from the Washington Post about
Senator Dianne Feinstein's "strong defense" of the USA Patriot Act at
yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee meeting.
Mark Smith
CLA Legislative Committee
*******************************************
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61591-2003Oct21.html
washingtonpost.com
Patriot Act Misunderstood, Senators Say
Complaints About Civil Liberties Go Beyond Legislation's Reach, Some Insist
By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 22, 2003; Page A04
Democratic and Republican lawmakers said yesterday that the USA Patriot Act
has drawn unmerited criticism from civil libertarians at both ends of the
political spectrum who have targeted it with complaints over unrelated
issues.
Even as some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee said they want to see
elements of the Patriot Act modified, others contended that some of the
attacks on the anti-terrorism legislation have been unfair. The act, they
said, has been inaccurately cited for harsh treatment of detainees in the
months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and President Bush's designation of
some terrorism suspects as enemy combatants.
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), speaking at the first of several
oversight hearings on terrorism legislation, called criticism of the Patriot
Act "ill-informed and overblown" and commended prosecutors' work in some
terrorism cases.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) mounted a strong defense of the Patriot
Act, saying she believes there is "substantial uncertainty and perhaps some
ignorance about what this bill actually does do and how it has been
employed." Panel Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said terrorism legislation
has been misrepresented "by extremists on both ends who seem to be
dominating the debate in the media today."
In recent months, nearly 200 cities and three states have passed resolutions
contending that the Patriot Act, which expires next year, tramples on civil
liberties. Bush and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft have campaigned to
preserve the powers granted by the act, which faces reauthorization.
Feinstein said that her office has received 21,434 letters opposing the act,
but more than half cite provisions that have not been enacted or sent to
Congress by the Bush administration. The rest, she said, largely concern
security measures governing items mailed to the United States from abroad --
not provisions of the Patriot Act.
"I have never had a single abuse of the Patriot Act reported to me," she
said.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Justice Department for
alleged violations of civil liberties under the act, but Feinstein said that
when her office asked the ACLU for examples, "they had none."
The act, passed six weeks after the Sept.11 attacks, enhanced the FBI's
powers in terrorism probes, most significantly by giving the agency access
to intelligence information that was previously off-limits to criminal
investigators. The act also provided broader power to conduct searches and
tap cell phones.
In July, the House voted to suspend funding for "sneak-and-peek" searches,
in which investigators do not immediately notify the subject that a search
has been conducted. But Feinstein argued yesterday in favor of the
provision, saying it merely codifies, and even narrows, investigative
authority already established in drug and organized crime case law.
Controversy has swirled over another section of the law that allows
investigators to obtain medical, business and library records in terrorism
investigations without notifying subjects. Last month, Ashcroft disclosed
that the provision has never been used and said the law's critics had
constructed "castles in the air built on misrepresentation; supported by
unfounded fear; held aloft by hysteria."
Democrats on the panel criticized Ashcroft for attacking those who worry
about preservation of civil liberties, and chided him and others at the
Justice Department for failing to provide timely information to Congress.
Biden predicted that if such a "shroud of secrecy" continues, it will doom
the Patriot Act's chances of reauthorization.
Not all Democrats supported the
legislation yesterday. Sen. Richard J.
Durbin (Ill.) said Congress overwhelmingly passed the Patriot Act in "a
moment of fear," and that while Feinstein is "probably right" that it has
not been used to erode civil liberties, it is the government's "burden to
prove" that it has not gone too far.
Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), the only member of the Senate to vote against the
Patriot Act, said he supports "90 percent" of its provisions and believes
the rest are "fixable." He, Durbin and other Senate liberals have joined
forces with conservatives, including Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), in
promoting modest changes to several provisions of the law, making it more
difficult, for example, for investigators to obtain records from libraries
and booksellers.
Christopher A. Wray, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division,
along with Virginia U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty and Illinois U.S. Attorney
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, told the panel that the Patriot Act was invaluable in
investigating important terrorism cases, including the probe of a terrorist
cell in Portland, Ore., and an investigation of the murder in Pakistan of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
In a separate matter, Wray told the panel that Ashcroft is regularly briefed
on progress in the investigation of who leaked the name of a CIA operative
to columnist Robert D. Novak. Wray said Ashcroft is told of important
developments, including the names of witnesses. Some Democrats have called
for Ashcroft to recuse himself because members of the Bush administration
may be questioned.
(c) 2003 The Washington Post Company
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