Obama Quietly Backs Patriot Act Provisions

With the health care debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly supporting renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA Patriot Act that civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms.'

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DoJ Official Blows Cover Off PATRIOT Act

In the debate over the PATRIOT Act, the Bush White House insisted it needed the authority to search people's homes without their permission or knowledge so that terrorists wouldn't be tipped off that they're under investigation. Now that the authority is law, how has the Department of Justice used the new power? To go after drug dealers.

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US Patriot Act Used Against 16yr old Citizen

The family has been told they have no rights to see their child and, under the USA PATRIOT ACT, the child has no rights to even defend himself. They claim the Constitution does not apply to this 16 year old, natural born, American citizen.

Gaza Aid Prevented By US

After Israel's war on Gaza in January, much of the infrastructure is in ruins. Schools, hospitals, roads, and different public offices were bombed. Three hundred thousand people have no water, and UNICEF estimates that 8,000 children are badly malnourished. But Save The Children and other aid organizations are being prevented from rebuilding by U.S. legislation. According to the Patriot Act, support to build schools or clinics in Gaza is "supporting terrorism".

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The Militarization of America

The name of the so-called "U.S. Department of Homeland Security" has always disturbed and rankled me.
Created in the frenzied political aftermath of the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks, it sounds like something Hitler's propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels would have dreamed up to impress the gullible masses. Indeed, the attitude too often displayed at airports by the over paid DHS's minions of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is akin to that of storm troopers.
Two years ago I and others called attention to a dangerous provision slipped into an omnibus appropriation bill that gave the President of the United States the unprecedented power to deploy the U.S. military for domestic duty within the United States as he sees fit.
President Bush (or someone who had his ear) came up with the disturbing idea that the U.S. military should be put in charge of domestic police matters when a "major catastrophe" occurs within America.

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