Senators Wyden and Udall still fighting against Patriot Act secrecy
by Steve Ragan - Mar 19 2012, 17:55
The Tech Herald
EXCERPT...
Section 215 is in the spotlight because FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) courts have issued legal opinions on the section in secret. It’s a public statute, but how it is interpreted by the FISA courts, or anyone else in the government for that matter, is unknown. However, it’s clear that the section vastly expands the government’s power when it comes to intelligence collection.
While the government has given Congress details on their interpretation, the data was so highly classified that most Congressional members do not have anyone on staff with the clearance to read them.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Holder by Senators Wyden and Udall, this fact was highlighted, along with a note that if their colleagues were fully aware of the data, they would likely be “surprised and angry” to learn how the Patriot Act has been dealt with in secret. So would everyone else the letter says.
“We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted section 215 of the Patriot Act. As we see it, there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what they government secretly claims the law allows. This is a problem, because it is impossible to have an informed public debate about what the law should say when the public doesn’t know what its government thinks the law says,” the Senators wrote.
SNIP...
“However, in a democratic society – in which the government derives its power from the consent of the people – citizens rightly expect that their government will not arbitrarily keep information from them. Americans expect their government to operate within the boundaries of publicly-understood law, and as voters they have a need and a right to now how the law is being interpreted, so that they can ratify or reject decisions made on their behalf. To put it another way, Americans know that their government will sometimes conduct secret operations, but they don't think that government officials should be writing secret laws.”
SOURCE:
http://www.thetechherald.com/articles/Senators-Wyden-and-Udall-still-fighting-against-Patriot-Act-secrecy/16433/
Is it fascism, yet?
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