They're trying to expand the Patriot Act


Well, here they go. Let's hope that a few moderate Republicans in the Senate will help the Democrats stall this thing out. Since they started charging strip-club owners with the Patriot Act, I know something has gone wrong. And if they pass these provisions, they could seize the records of the strippers to see who put one dollar bills in each girls g-string.

Yahoo! News - House OKs Intelligence Bill, But Not Easily

The provision in the intelligence bill that became contentious would allow the FBI to execute warrants without court approval to follow suspected terror finances through pawnshops, casinos, travel agencies and other venues not traditionally considered financial. The FBI can now take such action with traditional financial institutions like banks.

Rep. Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who approved the bill, said the votes against it were due to a misunderstanding over the FBI provision.

'They thought we were expanding the Patriot Act,' Harman told Reuters.

Well, weren't you? Expanding it from seizing financial records from banks and credit unions to other businesses?

Patriot Act Expansion Moves Through Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov 21 (OneWorld) -- Congress is poised to approve new legislation that amounts to the first substantive expansion of the controversial USA Patriot Act since it was approved just after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

Acting at the Bush administration's behest, a joint House-Senate conference committee has approved a provision in the 2004 Intelligence Authorization bill that will permit the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to demand records from a number of businesses--without the approval of a judge or grand jury--if it deems them relevant to a counter-terrorism investigation.

The measure would extend the FBI's power to seize records from banks and credit unions to securities dealers, currency exchanges, travel agencies, car dealers, post offices, casinos, pawnbrokers and any other business that, according to the government, has a "high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or regulatory matters." Such seizures could be carried out with the approval of the judicial branch of government.

Until now only banks, credit unions, and similar financial institutions were obliged to turn over such records on the FBI's demand.

Shortly after the conference agreement was reached, the House of Representatives approved the underlying authorization bill by a margin of 263 to 163. The measure is expected to pass the Senate shortly.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said it was "disappointed" with the House's approval, but also expressed satisfaction that a number of lawmakers on both left and right decided to oppose the bill because they oppose the records provision, whose inclusion in the bill was discovered by staff aides only last week.

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