The Senate passed it with a voice vote to avoid individual accountability.Pardon my language, but all I have to say to this is: you sick fucks.
While broadening the definition of "financial institution," the Bush administration is ramping up provisions within the 2001 USA Patriot Act, which granted the FBI the authority to obtain client records from banks by merely requesting the records in a "National Security Letter." To get the records, the FBI doesn't have to appear before a judge, nor demonstrate "probable cause" - reason to believe that the targeted client is involved in criminal or terrorist activity. Moreover, the National Security Letters are attached with a gag order, preventing any financial institution from informing its clients that their records have been surrendered to the FBI. If a financial institution breaches the gag order, it faces criminal penalties. And finally, the FBI will no longer be required to report to Congress how often they have used the National Security Letters.Pardon my language again, but all I have to say to this is: you sick sick fucks.
Ashcroft and Co. disassembled Patriot Act II, then reassembled its parts into other legislation. By attaching the redefinition of "financial institution" to an Intelligence Authorization Act, the Bush Administration and its Congressional allies avoided public hearings and floor debates for the expansion of the Patriot Act.And again: sick sick sick sick fucks.
What is all this? Bush signs parts of Patriot Act II into law — stealthily
Apparently, our Senators, scared of accountability, have helped the FBI run free of accountability. I still love this line: And finally, the FBI will no longer be required to report to Congress how often they have used the National Security Letters.
I suppose that's a good thing, since the last thing congress wants to do is be accountable and to hold others to some degree of accountability.
Sick sick fucks.
What makes this even better is: Bush signed this in to law the same day Saddam Hussein was captured, causing it to receive absolutely no airtime from the media who were too busy building replicas of Hussein's hidey-hole to care about this potentially very significant bill.