Should The Patriot Be Renewed As Is? Strengthened? Weakened?

[Annie]

I have conflicted feelings on this. There is not enough communication going on between police agencies at the local to national levels and in reverse. Yet, how is law enforcement supposed to weed out 'sleeper cells' if they are more limited than with drugs and gangs?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/09/politics/09cnd-bush.html?th&emc=th

June 9, 2005
Bush Urges Congress to Keep Patriot Act Intact
By DAVID STOUT

WASHINGTON, June 9 - President Bush offered a ringing defense today of a much debated law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, asserting that it has not stepped on civil liberties, as its critics contend, but has protected America from terrorist threats.

"The Patriot Act closed dangerous gaps in America's law enforcement and intelligence capabilities, gaps that terrorists exploited when they attacked us," Mr. Bush said in a speech at the Ohio State Patrol Academy in Columbus.

The U.S.A. Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly by Congress shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, broadened the F.B.I.'s wiretapping authority and other surveillance powers in ways that its supporters say are helping to thwart terrorists but that its critics say are trampling on rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Sixteen provisions of the law are to expire at the end of the year, and a spirited debate is under way on Capitol Hill. Some lawmakers want to keep the current provisions, or even further bolster law enforcement's powers. Other lawmakers say those powers have done little, if anything, to make the country safer and ought to be repealed.

[...]

Mr. Bush went on to say that "for the sake of our national security, Congress must not rebuild a wall between law enforcement and intelligence."

A crucial section of the law, Mr. Bush said, is one authorizing "roving wiretaps," electronic surveillance aimed at terror suspects who use a series of cellphones to frustrate pursuers. Previously, law enforcement agents had to get a judge's permission for each phone number they wanted to monitor.

Before the Patriot Act, Mr. Bush said, law enforcement agencies could use roving wiretaps in trying to catch drug kingpins and mob bosses, but not to pursue terrorists. "If we have good tools to fight street crime and fraud, law enforcement should have the same tools to fight terrorism," he said.

The president recalled the case of an Ohio truck driver, Iyman Faris, who was charged in 2003 with plotting with Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders to commit horrendous acts of terrorism, including blowing up the Brooklyn Bridge. Mr. Faris pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Without the Patriot Act, Mr. Bush said, Mr. Faris might have continued to pose as a law-abiding Columbus truck driver whose illicit activities, including trips to Afghanistan to plot with terrorists, would have gone undetected. "And today, instead of planning terror attacks against the American people, Iyman Faris is sitting in an American prison," Mr. Bush said...