hummingwolf | Wednesday, April 9th, 2003

Congressional Republicans want to make the USA PATRIOT Act permanent. Well, of course they do. Isn't that why Dubya declared a "War on Terror" rather than just wars on individual nations in the first place? A war on Afghanistan or Iraq or even Al Qaeda can end eventually; a War on Terror never will. May as well make all the provisions permanent then.

The landmark legislation expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects.

When it passed in October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005 unless Congress re-authorizes them.

But Republicans in the Senate in recent days have discussed a proposal, written by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, that would repeal the sunset provisions and make the law's new powers permanent, officials said. Republicans may seek to move on the proposal this week by trying to attaching it to another antiterrorism bill that would make it easier for the government to use secret surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" terrorism suspects.