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Patriot Act May Not Ride Off Into Sunset
Posted by Ren Bucholz on Thursday, April 10 @ 00:10:37 EDT Civil Liberties
In the aftermath of September 11, Congress passed the most extensive expansion of government surveillance powers in the history of our country: the USA Patriot Act. While the House Judiciary Committee unanimously passed one version of the bill on Friday, October 13, it was scrapped over the weekend and replaced with another, expanded version favored by the Senate. Under intense pressure from the Bush Administration, the 187-page bill was passed by the House three hours after it was introduced. Though it was cold comfort, the public was able to take a little solace in the fact that many of USAPA's provisions were scheduled to expire, or "sunset," in 2005. According to the New York Times, Senator Orin Hatch has now threatened to remove the sunset provisions, making many of the most troubling provisions of USAPA into permanent fixtures of America's surveillance landscape. You can read EFF's analysis of the sunset provisions here.

This is troubling on its face, but it's not surprising. Dan Gillmor's Sunday column points out that the logical conclusion of the "war on terrorism" is that there is no conclusion.
 
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