Senate panel OKs sweeping FBI subpoena powers

[RBHam]

The Police State Is Now Firmly Entrenched...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=1&u=/nm/20050608/pl_nm/security_subpoena_dc

Senate panel OKs sweeping FBI subpoena powers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday sided with the White House by proposing broad new subpoena powers for the FBI to use in counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations, officials said.

After hours of secret deliberations, the oversight panel voted 11-4 to send to the full Senate a proposal that would give the FBI the power to subpoena without judicial approval a wide range of personal documents ranging from health and library records to tax statements.

The bill would add the subpoena powers to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs federal investigations of foreign intelligence and terrorist activities. Officials said the FBI already exercises the same subpoena powers in criminal investigations.

The legislation approved by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also would make permanent intelligence-related sections of the USA Patriot Act that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

more...

You still think you live in a free country????...

ACLU accuses FBI of 'spying' on activists
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0519/dailyUpdate.html
Civil liberties group says FBI used 'terrorism' as a pretext for improper surveillance and interviews.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com


On the same day that the FBI warned a Congressional committee about the danger of "domestic terrorism," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Wednesday accused the FBI of using terrorism as a pretext to spy on activists who "oppose the war in Iraq, the USA Patriot Act, and other government policies."

The BBC reports that senior officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives told a Senate panel Wednesday that they are "increasingly concerned" about "violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists." The law enforcement officials said they were particularly concerned about the activities of two groups: the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF)

more fresh hell...

[lady lib]

1. Yeah, those scary animal rights groups --

a government's worst nightmare. F*ckers.

If someone organizes a march on Washington, I'll be there to fight this one.

[atommom]

2. Damn that Pat Roberts.

[hang a left]

3. There have been at least 10 posts over the past two weeks

on this subject. Some in LBN and some in GD(P). Some of the posts were while the Intelligence Committee were meeting IN SECRET broadening the finer aspects of the Patriot Act. It really gets to me that there has not been more interest in these posts.

My prediction: The NEW Patriot act passes, while everyone is frothing over all the DSM threads, and then the DSM story dies a quick but painful death. IMO the Patriot Act should receive the same type of activism that the DSM is now enjoying.

It is not that I think the DSM is not huge. I have just seen too many scandals go by the wayside. Maybe I am wrong but, I just don't see it happening if the past has any reflection on future events.

[hang a left]

4. See what I mean.....