What organizations supported the Patriot Act?

[realisticphish]

I'm a grad student in library science, doing a project on the patriot act. One of my goals was to find some orgs that supported the Patriot Act. So far, I've been stymied, apart from one "coalition for security, liberty, and the law," which pretty much looks like a neocon think tank. Unsurprisingly, anti-act orgs are not difficult to find, from the ALA to the ACLU.

Does anyone know of other non-government orgs that supported the patriot act?

[Hekate]

1. First off, it's the USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym.

Try the usual google process of Patriot Act + PNAC (and other conservative organizations). What I would do then is go name by name of the signatories to PNAC, i.e. Patriot Act + Jeb Bush, that kind of thing. Follow the names. Then follow the money. You may find names involved with corporations.

Ask some of our DUers, like formercia, too.

Gotta run. Let us know what you find.

Hekate

[realisticphish]

2. thanks

[Hekate]

3. You're more than welcome. Another tack is to delve into those orgs that oppose it...

For a couple of years I worked locally with a loosely-affiliated group called BORDC, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which was formed specifically to oppose the USA PATRIOT Act. I just Googled for them, and they still are active nationally. It's quite likely that someone there could point you in a fruitful direction.

Several years into this destructive Bush administration I started asking myself "Who does it serve to do these things?" and found that it was not a rhetorical question after all. Who benefits? in power, in money? Someone always does. Find out who.

Anyway, when I was trying to figure out who was connected to what regarding the extreme right wing Christians in the Bush admin, I found that it was very useful to just keep plugging names into Google and using the + sign. I was aghast at the results, but I learned a lot.

I used to be all about finding information in books, but sitting in the stacks running my finger down Index pages in volume after volume doesn't take you there fast enough in modern politics. You must live in an amazing world as a Library Science major circa 2008.

Hekate

[realisticphish]

4. ohhh yeah

a large proportion of our classes have to do with digital databases and services. We still have to learn dewey, etc, but the tech stuff is a much larger percentage.

Not to mention all the material on NSL compliance, and the ways to keep patrons' information secret (shredding documents, wiping hard drives, emptying caches, etc)

[Hekate]

5. "Keeping patrons' info secret"? Good for you. Librarians have a special place in my pantheon anyway.

:toast:

All the more reason to try BORDC. We tried to get the City Council to require the librarians to post a notice at the check-out stand that all patrons' information was subject to scrutiny by the feds. Too bad that didn't fly--the council was concerned about putting city employees in a bind in case of any dispute with the feds. I understand that part, but I still think a notice in the public's face would gain some needed attention to the problem.

Hekate

[realisticphish]

6. councils don't know squat

talk to the library board of directors (who also don't know squat, but at least we have some influence with them). Many boards now have patriot act policies, and the ALA actively encourages libraries to post things like the sign you mentioned. There is absolutely nothing illegal about that sign, or even legal-in-a-gray-area. Staff just needs to know to direct any and all law enforcement requests to the director

[Hekate]

7. Speaking of PNAC, they've changed their name. See link ...

Posted by Indi Guy here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4531619
"PNAC is Back as FDD (these traitors never give up)..."

[The Bakery Wagon]

8. I'm not sure about NGOs but I do know that John Kerry ran adverts on local radio

saying he "helped to write the patriot act". No one can tell me that I didn't hear these ads
because I did, although many chose to hum or chant la la la.

These ads were run on KIRO 710am

Which is a main reason I couldn't support him.

"... Kerry voted for the Patriot Act--and against some proprivacy amendments proposed by Russ Feingold, D-Wis., during the floor debate.

In last week's convention speech, Kerry talked about restoring the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, but it's hardly clear what he meant. His campaign says that "John Kerry stands by his vote for the Patriot Act. He even wants to strengthen some aspects of it relating to terrorism, such as improving intelligence information sharing."

At the same time, however, Kerry is a sponsor of a bill in the Senate that would repeal part of the Patriot Act by curbing current police practices relating to surveillance and search warrants..."
http://news.cnet.com/John-Kerrys-real-tech-agenda/2010-1028_3-5291476.html

So he helped to write it and was for it before he was against it. ROFL

"...Take the Patriot Act. Kerry condemns it fiercely as the stuff of a "knock-in-the-night" police state. He vows "to end the era of John Ashcroft" by "replacing the Patriot Act with a new law that protects our people and our liberties at the same time."

So does that mean he voted against it in 2001? Au contraire! Kerry voted for the law -- parts of which he originally wrote. He singled out its money-laundering sections for particular praise but declared that he was "pleased at the compromise we have reached on the antiterrorism legislation as a whole."

Bottom line, then: Is Kerry for or against the Patriot Act? Absolutely..."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/02/12/john_kerrys_shifting_stands/

Here's 2 questions your project might find interesting:

Which government officials opposed the patriot act? And how many of those that supported it actually read it?

[realisticphish]

10. well, the project

is specifically about the effect of the patriot act on libraries. The other bits of it are for background

but thanks for the information

[KG]

9. the GOP and the dem. party.