White House releases Patriot Act "Fact Sheet"....

[truthpusher]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050609.html

From the White House website:
----------------
Fact Sheet: the Patriot Act Helps Keep America Safe
----------------
The Patriot Act Helps Keep America Safe
----------------
Today's Presidential Action
----------------
Today, President Bush Delivered Remarks In Columbus, Ohio, On The Patriot Act's Role In Winning The War On Terror. The President talked about the vital contribution the Patriot Act has made to protecting our homeland and saving American lives, and called upon Congress to renew 16 provisions set to expire at the end of the year.

The Patriot Act Has Helped Prosecutors Take Legal Action Against Terrorist Operatives And Their Supporters. Since September 11th, the United States has charged over 400 suspected terrorists, and more than half of those charged have already been convicted.

Law Enforcement Agents At The Federal, State, And Local Levels Rely On The Patriot Act Every Day. The Patriot Act has helped them break up terrorist cells in New York, Oregon, Virginia, and Florida.

Background: The Patriot Act Makes It Easier To Investigate Suspected Terrorists Within The United States.

The Patriot Act Encourages Information Sharing By Breaking Down The Wall Between Law Enforcement And Intelligence.

Before The Patriot Act, Criminal Investigators Were Separated From Intelligence Officers By A Legal And Bureaucratic Wall. The Patriot Act helped tear down this wall, giving law enforcement and intelligence officers the ability to share information, work together, and bring terrorists to justice.


complete document at link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050609.html

[alarimer]

1. He's "catapulting the propaganda" again

The Patriot act is the worst piece of legislation of the last few years.

[Benhurst]

2. I would say worst piece of legislation

in what used to be our nation's history.

[rodeodance]

3. now we will hear this "talking points' -a zillions times from every Right-

wing froghorn!!!!!!!!!

[MADem]

4. And of course, he must be right about it!!!!

After all, they got the ICE CREAM MAN in LODI, with the very Patriot Act (so they say). How convenient!!!!!

[alarimer]

20. well Ice Cream is a terrorist weapon

It's all a plot to make us fat.

[MADem]

23. Well, I have to admit, that with this hot, humid weather

...ice cream wins. No Congressional act can turn it back, no arrests of vendors of the evil product will deter me...and the supermarket freesers stuffed with it just call to me...I support ICE CREAM, and damn the pounds that accrue!

[Supersedeas]

13. clear the catapult....RELEASE

[SteppingRazor]

5. Well thank God Bush cleared that up!

I always thought the Patiot Act was a BAD thing. Nice to know I don't have to worry about it. :crazy:

[fooj]

6. I can't believe that they didn't run him out of Ohio!

Grrrrr...:grr:

[Fovea]

7. The Whitehouse wouldn't know a fact

if it reached up and bit them on the dick.

Just more lies and opinion.

[central scrutinizer]

8. anybody think there is a chance that

they are cherrypicking some facts to fit their policy? Nah, these staunchly upright moral God-anointed Christians would never do that.

[rodeodance]

9. what group was Jr speaking to in OHIO? anyone know?

[rodeodance]

11. just heard it was the OHIO Law academy. um....

[rodeodance]

12. somebody ought t hand him an orange prison uniform since he likes

to be seen with uniforms as a backdrop so often.

[rodeodance]

10. bet yor are right ON the button~

[Jack Rabbit]

14. Propaganda, Goebbels style

Hitler's own big lie technique is very unreliable. It works only as long as access to information is in a vacuum and the target of the lie has no way of knowing the truth. That is why the Downing Street document will lead to the Bush regime's downfall; there is no way to get around the fact that it states unequivocally that intelligence was being manipulated ("fixed") around a pre-determined policy of regime-change in Iraq by military force because the case for carrying out that policy was "thin". It confirms what most of us on the Left had long ago surmised: the Bush, Blair and their lieutenants were willfully lying and dissembling.

Better is Goebbels' method of the half-truth. It's a little bit like a sportscaster on the eleven o'clock news reporting that the home team scored six runs in the game just completed and showing film of the highlights of the team's players crossing the plate. One might be lulled into believing that the home team won the game; however, what the sportscaster doesn't tell his viewers in this analogy is that the other team scored eight runs.

Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with the Patriot Act if it were nothing more than a way for foreign intelligence and domestic law enforcement agencies to cooperate in investigations that overlap. That's all this "fact sheet" discusses. However, this is the same Patriot Act that impresses local public librarians into a secret police department and expands the presumed right of the government to intrude on private matters to alarming levels. That's part of the Patriot Act, too, but this "fact sheet" doesn't talk about those features. Is the regime willing to dispense with these powers? When Congressman Sanders introduced an amendment to the Justice Department appropriations bill to strip funding for the government's snooping into one's record at the public library, the White House and their allies in the House fought tooth and nail (and even dirty) to defeat the amendment. The regime doesn't want to protect us; they want to intrude on us.

It is also a legitimate question if by renewing the Patriot Act the regime wants to strengthen it under the proposed provisions of a Justice Department draft written two years ago. Among the provisions written into this act is one that will allow the regime to strip any citizen, native-born or naturalized, of his rights and then putting him into indefinite detention as an undocumented alien. That's a pretty neat way to get around the Bill of Rights. Is the Bill of Rights, like the Geneva Conventions, to be dismissed as "quaint"?

The "fact sheet" says that there are many safeguards that ensure that the Patriot Act is applied responsibly. This regime seized power after losing an election in 2000. It came to power under circumstances that entitled it to no benefit of any doubt. Since then, they committed the most outrageous betrayal of public trust in American history: lying and dissembling to garner support for an unjustified and unnecessary invasion of a sovereign state. No one should ever, ever trust this regime to act responsibly.

Any proposal to renew the Patriot Act should be rejected by Congress.

[Bill ORights]

21. How much of Patriot Act 2 has been tacked on other bills--anyone know?

The ACLU analysis of Patriot 2 is really helpful--thanks, Jack Rabbit. Is there a list somewhere of Patriot 2 riders to other bills? I have the 2001 AP list of how Patriot 1 damages the Bill of Rights, and hand out the Bill of Rights and the AP list to all my students every semester. I'd like to update it with the additions.

[Terran]

15. Um, wait a sec...

Since September 11th, the United States has charged over 400 suspected terrorists, and more than half of those charged have already been convicted.

Has anyone here ever heard of a single person being convicted for anything under the PATRIOT Act? That had to do with terrorism, anyway? I'd like to know who these 200-odd people are who have been convicted of crimes under the PATRIOT Act.

[plcdude]

16. notice closely

that the source of the charges and reasons for convictions do not attribute them to violations of the Patriot Act. They are violations of immigration law for the most part. You know talk about terrorism and 9/11 and then talk about Iraq. It works.

[msrbly]

17. Very misleading statement

The public assumes the USA PATRIOT Act is designed to classify certain actions as terrorist acts. This isn't true. There are actually no crimes to be convicted of in the USA PATRIOT Act. It is just a tool to get around our traditional civil rights and convict ordinary criminals (in some cases wrongly) of doing ordinary crimes. If law enforcement uses a roving wire tap or a secret warrant and that means leads to a conviction, they call that person a terrorist. By the way, according the Bush administration, we are all "suspected terrorists." That makes their boast that they've charged only 400 of us and convicted only 200 of us seem kind of weak.

[Terran]

18. Yep. My question was mostly rhetorical.

If there had actually been any terrorists convicted in the US, it would have been a media circus each and every time. The closest they ever got to their terrorist arrest wet dream was that poor schmuck of a gang member in Chicago.

[wallwriter]

19. Yup. The Patriotism is just an Act.

[Ilsa]

22. Oh, well, when they put it that way, I can't wait to support it.

Sure, come search my home and get the warrant later since they do it that way for the War on Drugs. :sarcasm: I feel so much safer now that we're doing this but not checking shipping containers or making certain the airlines are safe.