New York Journal News: Patriot Act a tool to keep Americans safe
Actionable intelligence is to the war on terror what the rifle was to previous conflicts. Without good intelligence, our nation is essentially unarmed against a ruthless enemy. Congress has given law enforcement officials the Patriot Act for gathering information to thwart terror plots. The Patriot Act has been attacked as a violation of civil liberties, but clearly the law balances our civil liberties with the unprecedented challenges to our national security. Opponents of the Patriot Act typically point to Section 215, insinuating that it allows federal agents to look at anyone's library card or computer hard drive on a whim.
This is simply untrue. Section 215 is extremely narrow in scope, and requires FBI agents to seek an order from a federal judge to obtain tangible items.
Section 215 searches are limited to suspected foreign spies and international terrorists and require an order from a federal judge. Suspicions based merely on an American's First Amendment activities are not enough to warrant this judicial order.
The authority the FBI wields under the Patriot Act is similar to its power to investigate organized crime, which has always withstood constitutional challenges.
In addition to requiring court orders for searches, Section 215 provides for congressional oversight. The U.S. attorney general is required to ''fully inform'' Congress on how often Section 215 searches have been requested and effected. This is yet another check on the power of government.
Cut in protection
Last month a federal judge in New York struck down the portion of the Patriot Act that allows the FBI to issue ''national security letters'' demanding that communication companies release records for suspected spies or terrorists. The FBI has been permitted to make such demands since 1986. The Patriot Act merely updated this power to account for technological advances. Why now, when the threat of terrorism is greater than ever, would anyone seek to weaken our national defense?
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, it took only 19 terrorists to hijack four planes, destroy two buildings and murder nearly 3,000 Americans. As of June 2004, the Patriot Act has helped arrest 310 individuals on terror-related charges; 179 of them have already been convicted.
In light of what 19 terrorists accomplished on 9/11, it is instructive to contemplate the mayhem, death and destruction that would have been wrought had the Patriot Act not helped bring hundreds of these murderous fanatics to justice.
Iyman Faris is a terrorist who plotted murdering countless Americans by destroying the Brooklyn Bridge. Because of the Patriot Act, Faris is serving 20 years in prison, the bridge still stands and innocent lives were spared.
The Journal's Opinion page recently called for stripping power away from federal law enforcement officials investigating terrorists. Similarly, the American Book Sellers Association presented a petition to Congress calling for a repeal of key portions of the Patriot Act. Even Sen. John Kerry seeks to water down the Patriot Act. None of these opponents offer a plausible alternative that would keep Americans safe.
In September, 340 people, most of them children, were butchered at a Russian elementary school by the very same fanatical enemy that seeks to murder Americans. Recently, coalition forces found a man in Iraq carrying a disk with specific information about American schools. Shouldn't federal law enforcement, subject to the judicial and congressional checks and balances outlined in the Patriot Act, be allowed to gather information on terror suspects to prevent the deaths of American schoolchildren?
(Kieran Michael Lalor, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is the founder and executive director of the Eternal Vigilance Society. For more information, visit www.eternalvigilancesociety.org)
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Patriot Act a tool to keep Americans safe
For the Poughkeepsie Journal
Kieran Michael Lalor
October 14, 2004
Section: OPINION
Page: A08