NEW YORK - With the health care

debate preoccupying the mainstream media, it has gone virtually

unreported that the Barack Obama administration is quietly supporting

renewal of provisions of the George W. Bush-era USA Patriot Act that

civil libertarians say infringe on basic freedoms.

And it is reportedly doing so over the objections of some prominent Democrats.

When

a panicky Congress passed the act 45 days after the terrorist attacks

of Sep. 11, 2001, three contentious parts of the law were scheduled to

expire at the end of next month, and opponents of these sections have

been pushing Congress to substitute new provisions with substantially

strengthened civil liberties protections.

But with the apparent

approval of the Obama White House and a number of Republicans – and

over the objections of liberal Senate Democrats including Russ Feingold

of Wisconsin and Dick Durbin of Illinois – the Senate Judiciary

Committee has voted to extend the three provisions with only minor

changes.

Those provisions would leave unaltered the power of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to seize records and to eavesdrop

on phone calls and e-mail in the course of counterterrorism

investigations.

The parts of the act due to expire on Dec. 31 deal with:

National Security Letters (NSLs)

The

FBI uses NSLs to compel Internet service providers, libraries, banks,

and credit reporting companies to turn over sensitive information about

their customers and patrons. Using this data, the government can

compile vast dossiers about innocent people.

The 'Material Support' Statute

This

provision criminalises providing "material support" to terrorists,

defined as providing any tangible or intangible good, service or advice

to a terrorist or designated group. As amended by the Patriot Act and

other laws since Sep. 11, this section criminalises a wide array of

activities, regardless of whether they actually or intentionally

further terrorist goals or organisations.

FISA Amendments Act of 2008

This

past summer, Congress passed a law that permits the government to

conduct warrantless and suspicion-less dragnet collection of U.S.

residents' international telephone calls and e-mails.

Asked by

IPS why committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and other

Democrats chose to make only minor changes, Chip Pitts, president of

the Bill of Rights Defence Committee, referred to "the secret and

hypocritical lobbying by the Obama administration against reforms –

while publicly stating receptiveness to them." White House pressure, he

speculated, "was undoubtedly a huge if lamentable factor".

He added that some committee members were cautious because of the recent arrests of Najibullah Zazi and others.

Zazi

, a citizen of Afghanistan and a legal U.S. resident, was arrested in

September as part of a group accused of planning to carry out acts of

terrorism against the U.S. Zazi is said by the FBI to have attended

courses and received instruction on weapons and explosives at an al

Qaeda training camp in Pakistan.

Leahy acknowledged that, in

light of these incidents, "This is no time to weaken or undermine the

tools that law enforcement relies on to protect America."

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Pitts

told IPS, "Short-term and political considerations driven by dramatic

events once again dramatically affected the need for a more sensible

long-term, reasoned, rule-of-law approach."

"In the eight years

since passage of the original Patriot Act, it's become clear that the

escalating political competition to appear tough on terror - and avoid

being accused of being "soft on terror" - brings perceived electoral

benefits with few costs, with vital but fragile civil liberties being

easily sacrificed," he added.

In contrast to the Senate, the

House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved a version of the

legislation containing several significant reforms. In a 16-10

party-line vote, the committee's version curbs some of the government's

controversial surveillance powers.

The Patriot Act, passed by

a landslide after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to provide law enforcement

and intelligence agencies additional powers to thwart terrorist

activities, was reauthorised in 2005.

The legislation has been

criticised by many from across the ideological spectrum as a threat to

civil liberties, privacy and democratic traditions. Sections of the

original act have been ruled unconstitutional, with certain provisions

violating protected rights.

Judiciary Chair John Conyers, a

Michigan Democrat, said the goal of the new legislation was to "craft a

law that preserves both our national security and our national values".

The

proposed new legislation would permit the so-called "lone wolf"

provision to sunset. This authority removed the requirement that an

individual needed to be an agent of a foreign power to be placed under

surveillance by intelligence officials and permitted surveillance of

individuals with a much lower evidentiary threshold than allowed under

criminal surveillance procedures.

It was intended to allow the

surveillance of individuals believed to be doing the bidding of foreign

governments or terrorist organisations, even when the evidence of that

connection was lacking.

The Justice Department maintains that

the "lone wolf" authority is necessary, even though there is no

evidence that it has been used. Its opponents believe that existing

authorities are sufficient to achieve the goals of the lone wolf

provision while more effectively protecting the rights of innocent

citizens.

The proposed new House legislation would also restrict

the use of national security letters. According to a Congressional

Research Service report, "National security letters (NSL) are roughly

comparable to administrative subpoenas. Intelligence agencies issue

them for intelligence gathering purposes to telephone companies,

Internet service providers, consumer credit reporting agencies, banks,

and other financial institutions, directing the recipients to turn over

certain customer records and similar information."

Under current

law, intelligence agencies have few restrictions on the use of NSLs,

and in numerous cases, have abused the authority. An FBI inspector

general report in 2007 "found that the FBI used NSLs in violation of

applicable NSL statutes, Attorney General Guidelines, and internal FBI

policies". The reform provisions seek to create greater judicial

scrutiny of NSL use.

The bill approved in the Senate contains

much more modest reforms. It would retain the lone wolf provision, and

is, in general, much more in line with the wishes of the

administration. Should both bills pass and go into conference to be

reconciled, it is unclear which approach would prevail.

House

and Senate versions still need to be voted on by each body separately

and then reconciled into a single bill to send to the president for

signature.

Pitts told IPS, "President Obama's flip-flop on

Patriot Act issues does as much damage as did his flip-flop on the FISA

Amendments Act and telecom immunity last year. But it's imperative that

we fight, while we still can, to comprehensively reinsert requirements

for fact-based, individualised suspicion, checks and balances, and

meaningful judicial review prior to government intrusions."

In

a report on the Patriot Act, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

said, "More than seven years after its implementation there is little

evidence that the Patriot Act has been effective in making America more

secure from terrorists. However, there are many unfortunate examples

that the government abused these authorities in ways that both violate

the rights of innocent people and squander precious security resources."

