At the same time the administration has won the support of leading Democrats to give legislative sanction for the first time to domestic spying without a court warrant. Democrats have been using recent revelations that the White House has authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to carry out such spying operations as a propaganda point in the factional infighting between the two major big-business parties.

The original Patriot Act was enacted shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, as one of Washington’s first actions in its “war on terrorism,” which included the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. The 1,016-clause law gave new powers to the FBI and other police agencies to conduct spying and disruption operations against individuals and organizations, carry out arbitrary searches and seizures in private homes and businesses, and jail immigrants without charges virtually indefinitely.

The Patriot Act is built on three 1996 laws that were at the heart of Clinton administration attacks on workers’ rights and political freedoms—the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, and the Economic Espionage Act.

Recent Congressional debate focused on two of the 16 provisions up for review. Democrats and Republicans agreed to make the other 14 permanent, while extending the “library provision” and “national security letters” for four more years.

The Patriot Act gives a government agency power to issue a “super-subpoena”—a national security letter—that forbids recipients from consulting a lawyer without police approval or even acknowledging that they have received the subpoena. The only change in the final version approved March 9 was to permit consultation with a lawyer without prior okay from the cops.

The library provision gives the government authority to obtain secret court orders to search private records from businesses, medical offices, libraries, and others as part of an “authorized” investigation. Those who receive these subpoenas must remain silent about the fact the search is going on. This “gag order” may now be challenged in court by the institution that receives the subpoena. The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman of California, praised the extension of the library provision because “only libraries that also function as Internet service providers are now covered.”

Republican legislators are making headway with a bill that would allow wiretapping without a warrant for up to 45 days if “there is probable cause to believe that one party to the communication is a member, affiliate, or working in support of a terrorist group or organization,” and one of the people involved is outside the United States.

In a show of bipartisan support for such a measure, senators from both parties agreed to the formation of a seven-member Senate Intelligence subcommittee. Democratic senator John Rockefeller from West Virginia called the new body, for which he is vice chair, “a step in the right direction.” Composed of four Republicans and three Democrats, the subcommittee would be charged with “oversight” of the NSA’s domestic surveillance program. According to rules for the new body proposed by the White House, the seven senators would be barred from revealing what they learned to the other members of the full Intelligence Committee—let alone the rest of Congress or the public.  
 
 
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