Re: U.S. Senate Blocks Patriot Act Renewal

[Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu>]

--On Friday, December 16, 2005 23:04:27 +0000 Fergie <fergdawg () netzero net> 
wrote:

> Sorry, gotta call 'bullshit' on that one.
>
> I would suggest that you familiarize yourself with the 16 provisions
> of the Patriot Act in contention:
>
>  http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/16/patriot.provisions.ap/index.html
So you would prefer I take the word of CNN over actually reading the law 
myself?  That seems a rather odd approach to me.

Perhaps you wouldn't mind explaining which of the 16 sections that are 
expiring contradicts what I said, namely that none of those can be done 
without judicial oversight or review except for section 501.

> Disclaimer: I'm also a fervant supporter of the EFF, blgging for
> EFF-Austin (Texas):
I'm a supporter of EFF myself, but I'm also a supporter of telling the 
truth, even when it's contrary to what you might like it to be.  The crazy 
claims that the Patriot Act intrudes on your civil rights are just that - 
crazy.  It grants the government the *same* authority in terrorism cases 
that they already had in organized crime cases.

Now that it's a moot point anyway, you can expect to see problems with 
terrorism investigations.  For example, federal agents will no longer be 
able to follow a person's phone calls no matter what phone they use.  They 
will now have to get a court order for *every* tap they need, which will 
severely hamper terrorism investigations since terrorists know they can 
simply switch phones frequently (which they already do) and avoid ever been 
tapped.

You may think you've "regained" some civil rights, but you've tied the 
government's hands behind its back and increased the likelihood that 
sleeper cells can avoid detection.

I'm all for freedom, but I think protecting American *lives* is more 
important than protecting American's "privacy" (which is not what 
expiration of this act does anyway.)

Furthermore, the President can simply supercede all of this by Executive 
Order by declaring an emergency.  Is that *better* than having a law that 
spells out what LE can and cannot do?

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu/ir/security/
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