Unfathomed Dangers in PATRIOT Act Reauthorization

By Paul Craig Roberts
A provision in the "PATRIOT Act" creates a new federal police force with the power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that this cannot be true, as you have not read about it in newspapers or heard it discussed by talking heads on TV.

Go to House Report 109-333 USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and check it out for yourself. Sec. 605 reads:

"There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division.'"

This new federal police force is "subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security."

The new police are empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."

3 comments:

  1. How delightful! The Bush makeover of America into "Der Fatherland" is almost complete. Our own Gestapo!

    It's interesting that so much attention was given to 9 Nazis in Olympia Sunday and yet too many Americans fail to see the similarities between the Nazi mentality and the Bush Administration.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So, what can/will they do to bloggers and others who dissent?

    I have been listening to the CD book “Age of Anxiety: from McCarthyism to Terrorism” by: Haynes Johnson (2005). I am now very near the end. As one may expect, there are many striking parallels between these two periods in American history. Perhaps the greatest similarity is how fear has been manipulated by those in power to further their own agendas and gain greater political power.

    What is also incredible is the fact that all of McCarthy’s communist witch hunts and all of the Patriot Act approved round-ups have netted exactly the same amount of convictions – ZERO!

    The active collaboration at worst; and the far more common dereliction of duty by most of the American press and too many members of the opposition party has been well documented on this blog and elsewhere.

    In the end, Joe McCarthy did himself in by over-reaching and a failure to recognize that it was time to retreat in the face of strong opposition. How will this Age of Terrorism and the mass manipulation of fear end?

    Pay Attention
    ask questions
    Speak Up
    QuestionItNow

    ReplyDelete
  3. Reb84 has a great mantra: Pay Attention; Ask Questions; Speak Up.

    You are doing it, Rob. Thanks for keeping our attention focused which makes us ask questions.

    ReplyDelete

 
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