In addition to the measures covered in last week’s Militant (see “Bipartisan deal reached on bill strengthening U.S. gov’t spying”), the bill, also referred to as H.R. 10, includes a range of provisions aimed at increasing the power of the FBI and other political police agencies to carry out surveillance, takes steps toward the creation of a national identification card, and curtails the rights of those charged with “terrorism.”

H.R. 10 was drafted on the basis of the conclusions of the bipartisan 9/11 commission hearings that were held earlier this year. Democrats, in particular, used the hearings to advance their charge that the Bush administration’s “intelligence failures” undermined the government’s ability to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

The House of Representatives approved the bill December 7 in a 336-75 vote. Of those who voted against the legislation, 67 were Republicans and 8 were Democrats. The Senate passed the bill the next day by an 89-2 vote. U.S. president George Bush has promised to sign the bill into law soon.

The new legislation “includes a series of little-noticed measures that would broaden the government’s power to conduct terrorism investigations, including provisions to loosen standards for FBI surveillance warrants and allow the Justice Department to more easily detain suspects without bail,” said an article in the December 10 Washington Post.

The FBI and other police agencies gain new authority under the bill to wiretap and eavesdrop on individuals it labels “terrorists.” These agencies may now obtain secret surveillance and search warrants without having to show a judge a link between what the big-business media call a “lone wolf,” an individual suspected of wrongdoing, and a foreign government or “terrorist” organization.

Even without these changes, judges readily comply with cop agencies’ requests for such surveillance. The Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act established a secret court in 1978 to enable the FBI to obtain approval for spying without having to go to a regular court. Of the more than 10,000 requests made to it for wiretaps, this secret court has never turned down a single one.

Opponents of H.R. 10 in Congress—such as Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Republican who heads the House Judiciary Committee—had cited its sponsors’ decision to drop U.S. citizenship as a requirement for a driver’s license as their reason to vote against the bill. Senators Joseph Lieberman from Connecticut and Susan Collins from Maine, the bipartisan team that ushered the bill through Congress, however, boasted of the “standardized driver’s licenses” that feature in H.R. 10. The new standard set in place lays the groundwork for meeting Sensenbrenner’s demands, and at the same time is a step toward a national identification card, which would give police and other government agencies greater access to personal information, representing further inroads to the right to privacy.

Under the banner of the “war on terrorism,” the new legislation would also increase criminal penalties for those convicted of “smuggling” or “harboring” undocumented workers, and increase the powers of the government to deny bail to “suspects in major terrorism” cases, the Post reported.

One secret spy program in H.R. 10 drew criticism from a number of Democratic senators, who charged it was, “very, very wasteful” and would pose a danger to “national security.” The Associated Press interviewed a number of “intelligence experts” who all agreed that the program was likely a spy satellite system, possibly equipped with the military firepower “to destroy potential attackers.” Sen. Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia said Congress has approved the program for the last two years.  
 
 
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