Senate rejects reauthorization of USA Patriot Act

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspatr1217,0,5251227.story?col...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Friday rejected attempts to reauthorize several provisions of the USA Patriot Act as infringing too much on Americans' privacy and liberty, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders.

In a crucial vote early Friday, the bill's Senate supporters were not able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a threatened filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47.

President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Republicans congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act provisions permanent, and add new safeguards and expiration dates to the two most controversial parts: roving wiretaps and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries.

Feingold, Craig and other critics said that wasn't enough, and have called for the law to be extended in its present form so they can continue to try and add more civil liberties safeguards. But Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have said they won't accept a short-term extension of the law.

If a compromise is not reached, the 16 Patriot Act provisions expire on Dec. 31.

Frist changed his vote at the last moment after seeing the critics would win. He decided to vote with the prevailing side so he could call for a new vote at any time. He immediately objected to an offer of a short term extension from Democrats, saying the House won't approve it and the president won't sign it.

"We have more to fear from terrorism than we do from this Patriot Act," Frist warned.

If the Patriot Act provisions expire, Republicans say they will place the blame on Democrats in next year's midterm elections. "In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without these vital tools for a single moment," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "The time for Democrats to stop standing in the way has come."

But the Patriot Act's critics got a boost from a New York Times report saying Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of people inside the United States. Previously, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations.

"I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care," said Feingold, the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001.

"It is time to have some checks and balances in this country," shouted Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "We are more American for doing that."

Most of the Patriot Act -- which expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers -- was made permanent when Congress overwhelmingly passed it after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. Making the rest of it permanent was a priority for both the Bush administration and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill before Congress adjourns for the year.

The House on Wednesday passed a House-Senate compromise bill to renew the expiring portions of the Patriot Act that supporters say added significant safeguards to the law. Its Senate supporters say that compromise is the only thing that has a chance to pass Congress before 2006.

"This is a defining moment. There are no more compromises to be made, no more extensions of time. The bill is what it is," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

The bill's opponents say the original act was rushed into law, and Congress should take more time now to make sure the rights of innocent Americans are safeguarded before making the expiring provisions permanent.

"Those that would give up essential liberties in pursuit in a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security," said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H. They suggested a short extension so negotiations could continue, but the Senate scrapped a Democratic-led effort to renew the USA Patriot Act for just three months before the vote began.

I'm hesitant to say anything before the rest of you speak.

Its ludacris.

http://counterpunch.org/lindorff12202005.html

Counterpunch has learned that the FBI has them.

Quote:


http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transport/article334686.ece

www.thenewspaper.com/news/08/891.asp

UK Speed Camera Tickets Non-Speeding Protestor
Annoyed by defiant gesture, speed camera issues ticket to non-speeding driver.

A UK court on Monday severely penalized a motorist for the crime of showing disrespect to a mobile speed camera van. The device had photographed Sean Toehill, 21, driving 22 MPH in a 40 MPH zone but police became enraged when they noticed he had given the camera a "V-sign." Officers were dispatched to his home two days later to present charges which the Cupar Sheriff Court in Fife, Scotland upheld on Monday. The court suspended Toehill's right to drive for a year and imposed a £90 (US $160) fine.

"I can't believe that speed cameras can be used in this way," Toehill, a North Sea oil worker, told the London Telegraph. "I thought they were to catch speeding drivers."

Toehill plans to appeal the ruling.

During a Washington address, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who headed the National Security Agency when President Bush first authorized the surveillance program after September 11, 2001, staunchly defended it.

"Had this program been in effect prior to 9/11, it is my professional judgment that we would have detected some of the 9/11 al Qaeda operatives in the United States and we would have identified them as such," said Hayden, who now serves as principal deputy director of national intelligence.

Addressing privacy concerns prompted by the program, Hayden said, "We know we can only do our job if we have the trust of the American people."

The exercise run by the joint Canadian and American command... was hampered by "weather issues..."

RICHMOND, Va. - A Virginia school district didn't violate a teacher's free-speech rights by removing Christian-themed postings from his classroom walls, a federal judge has ruled.
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In her ruling filed last week, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith said William Lee's posters at Tabb High School were part of his instructional tools and school curriculum and were subject to school review.

Lee, a Spanish teacher who advises the school's Christian students club, had displayed news articles about
President Bush's religious faith, a National Day of Prayer flier and a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge.

Officials removed the postings from Lee's classroom in 2004 after a parent complained, but they allowed some to stay, including a photo of Boy Scouts praying in memory of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Lee argued that his bulletin boards at the school in Yorktown, about 65 miles southeast of Richmond, were a limited public forum open for teachers' private expression and speech.

Smith disagreed, saying the case "is not about what free-speech rights Lee has as an individual expressing himself on private property. Rather, this case is a question about what free-speech rights Lee has as a public school teacher-employee."

York County Superintendent Steven R. Staples said the ruling reaffirmed both the school board's right to set curriculum and principals' right to guide teachers to choose classroom material that supports it.

Lee's attorney, Steve C. Taylor, didn't immediately return a call for comment.

A spokeswoman for the Rutherford Institute, the Christian-rights group that argued the case on Lee's behalf, said she wouldn't comment until the group has reviewed the ruling.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060315terror,1,7281670.st...

Feds probe photographers at Sears Tower

Tribune staff reports
Published March 15, 2006, 10:38 PM CST


Police and federal investigators are looking into an incident about three weeks ago at the Sears Tower in which three men caught the attention of security guards when they got out of their car and appeared to be studying the 110-story building and taking photographs.

The men were questioned by building security guards, but were allowed to leave, authorities said. The guards recorded the car's license plate and it was traced to a rental agency, a law enforcement source said.

The car was returned to the agency about an hour after the incident at the Sears Tower, the source said, and investigators from the Joint Terrorism Task Force learned that it had been rented with a fictitious name.

Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond confirmed that the department is working with the task force to investigate, but added that she could not discuss the specifics of the incidents.

"We are aware of the information," Bond said. "We cannot comment at this time because it's part of the ongoing investigation."

Also within the last three weeks, according to a WLS-TV report, a man was questioned about sketching the Boeing World Headquarters building.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va., March 15, 2006 -- The nation's tenth and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, George H. W. Bush (CVN 77), grew by nearly 800 tons today as Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) lowered the upper bow section of the ship into place. The addition of the upper bow completes the flight deck and extends the overall length of the carrier to its full size, which is as long as the Empire State Building is tall.

The carrier is under construction at Northrop Grumman's Newport News sector, the nation's sole designer, builder and refueler of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. Weighing 780 tons and made up of 25 steel sections, the upper bow is one of the heaviest crane lifts in the ship's production plan. Newport News began construction on the upper bow unit last February.

"Landing the fully-outfitted upper bow on the ship is a significant milestone in the design and construction of CVN 77, and most importantly, a great team effort by our shipbuilders," said Scott Stabler, vice president for the CVN 77 program at Northrop Grumman Newport News. "We are on track for record shipboard construction progress at launch in October."

Newport News is building the George H. W. Bush using modular construction, a process where smaller sections of the ship are welded together to form units called super lifts. These super lifts are pre-outfitted and then lifted into the construction dry dock with the sector's massive 900-ton gantry crane. The upper bow unit is the 155th of 161 super lifts used to build the carrier. It joins the lower bow section which was set into place in the dry dock nearly one year ago.

The George H. W. Bush is the second carrier to have a new bulbous bow design that provides more buoyancy to the forward end of the ship and improves hull efficiency. Other new design features include an updated aviation fuel distribution system, a new marine sewage system and new propellers. The George H. W. Bush's keel was laid Sept. 6, 2003. The christening will occur in October 2006 with delivery to the U.S. Navy in late 2008.

Think thats kewl? Wait until you see the CVN(X). New generation reactors with in-cycle fuel breeding which mean that they will last the life of the ship. Also is going to use a pottasium vapor colant loop spinning magnetic bearting turbo-alternators. It's going to have more then twice the electrical power avalible to the Nimitz class. It's electric drive motors will be much less maintnance intensive then the Nimitz but make it a much faster ship. Crew should be cut in half while the air wing is going to grow by about 20 combat air craft.

The CVN(X) is going to be one hell of a ship, although with the coming age of naval rail guns I can't help but wonder if the age of the carrier is going to come to an end when we get around to making a nuclear powered version of the DD(X) with 2nd generation rail guns. 600 miles inland, 3 minutes flight time, less then $3000 a shot, that will be a revolutionary ship.

OKC BOMBING FALLOUT
Federal judge rules: McVeigh had help
Bolsters claims government had informant inside conspiracy to attack federal building

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Posted: March 30, 2006
4:41 a.m. Eastern



By J.D .Cash, Roger Charles



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A U.S. District Court judge in Salt Lake City, Utah, has issued a stunning decision that appears to bolster claims that executed bomber Timothy McVeigh was supported by various militia groups, and that the government had an informant inside the bombing conspiracy.

The case in Utah grew out of a dispute between civil attorney Jesse Trentadue and the Oklahoma City FBI over documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.


For over a decade, Trentadue has been searching for documents that might shed light on the death of his brother at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, in August of 1995.

The federal government maintains that Kenneth Trentadue killed himself in a suicide-proof cell at the Oklahoma City federal installation, where he was being held on a purported parole violation for failing to report to his parole officer.

In the course of this investigation, Trentadue received "tips" from various sources, including one allegedly from a source close to McVeigh, before McVeigh's execution.

That source said that McVeigh told him that Kenneth Trentadue was beaten, tortured and murdered because the FBI mistakenly believed he was linked to a group of bank bandits that considerable evidence now suggests, assisted McVeigh in the plot to bomb the Oklahoma federal building.

The FOIA suit began after heavily redacted documents obtained by this newspaper, from an FBI whistleblower, confirmed McVeigh's links to Elohim City and informants working for the Southern Poverty Law Center who were present at the paramilitary compound on April 17, 1995, when McVeigh called the camp looking for German-national Andreas Strassmeir and additional help in the bombing.

While heavily redacted, that Jan. 4, 1996, teletype from then-FBI director Louis Freeh to a select group of FBI offices contained information appearing to link Strassmeir to McVeigh and the FBI's knowledge that Strassmeir was planning to flee the country soon.

Inexplicably, the FBI did not go to the residence where the memo said Strassmeir was living in Black Mountain, N.C., and detain the individual for questioning about the bombing. Instead, Strassmeir – with the help on his Black Mountain, N.C. attorney, Kirk Lyons, and former CIA pilot Dave Holloway – was able to slip across the Mexican border a few days after the teletype was issued.

Since the discovery of this heavily redacted document linking the SPLC, Elohim City and Strassmeir to McVeigh and the bombing conspiracy, the FBI has since produced 17 additional documents for Trentadue. However, key sections of those documents were also heavily redacted.

Seeking to have the FBI provide unredacted copies of these additional documents, Trentadue has claimed the FBI has a duty to make a full disclosure of who their informants and suspects in the bombing were, because the national interest in the Oklahoma City bombing, far outweighs any privacy interests those informants and suspects may have had.

In order to determine the validity of the claims made by both sides, the FBI was ordered in November to turn over unredacted copies of all the documents at issue for the judge to examine "in chambers."

Considering Trentadue's allegations about his brother's mysterious and violent death, the judge early in his opinion observed: "While officials ruled the death a suicide, the Plaintiff unearthed significant evidence of foul play. Plaintiff's theory is that his brother apparently looked very similar to Richard Lee Guthrie, who allegedly was one of Timothy McVeigh's accomplices in the Oklahoma City bombing and a member of the Mid-West Bank Robbery Gang. Plaintiff believes that his brother was killed during an overly aggressive interrogation by federal agents – who believed Kenneth Trentadue was Richard Lee Guthrie.

Later in his summary of the facts, Judge Dale Kimball also noted that Guthrie was later apprehended by authorities and he, too, is said to have committed suicide his jail cell while in federal custody.

After reviewing the unredacted documents provided by the FBI, Kimball singled out a teletype issued by the FBI, only six days after the blast.

"Plaintiff points out the fact that this document indicates there was an undercover operative in with Timothy McVeigh and members of the various militia groups who aided and supported McVeigh, but plaintiff wonders why, given the subject matter, there are no earlier records produced by the FBI."

Contacted after the ruling was issued, Trentadue told this newspaper that he is heartened by the language the judged used here, which clearly indicates the unredacted documents convinced the court that McVeigh had accomplices that have not been charged and the government had at least one informant within the cabal.

"The judge concurs with my allegations that McVeigh was supported by this bank robbery group at Elohim City and that the government was inside that group with at least one informant."


The court, though, sided with the FBI in refusing to allow the release of the names of the other suspects or their informants that provided them with information about the conspiracy.

In his 22-page ruling, Kimball said, "(FOIA) Exemption 7D protects records of information compiled for law enforcement purposes which could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source or information furnished by a confidential source."

Regarding the FBI's reluctance to provide the information sought by Trentadue, Kimball wrote, "It is troubling that so many of the documents produced by the FBI refer to FD-302s (investigation leads) that were or should have been prepared, and the disclosed documents also refer to other attachments that at one time appear to have accompanied the document, yet these documents have not been produced. While the FBI's failure to discover documents is not necessarily and indication of bad faith, it is puzzling that so many documents could be referenced but not produced."

Focusing on Morris Dees and the organization he co-founded, the SPLC, the judge ordered the FBI to conduct additional record searches for documents containing the names of Morris Dees, the SPLC and several radical members of the far-right that frequented Elohim City and that have been linked in the past to McVeigh.

Encouraging the FBI to fully cooperate with attorney Trentadue in his dogged search for the truth around his brother's murder, Kimball warned the agency: "It appears likely, however, that the FBI has not seen the last FOIA request from Plaintiff."

One senior, retired FBI agent who read only the paragraph quoted above from the judge's ruling said that the judge's finding that there was an informant and a broader conspiracy than heretofore admitted by the government makes even more inexplicable the FBI headquarters' shutting down all investigations into the Elohim City connection to OKBOMB.

He further stated that it would be "a huge scandal" if it is ever proven that Strassmeir's name is among those currently withheld as having been guaranteed confidentiality as an informant.