Ah yes, I was reminded today on Loud and Clear that our majority Democratic
House of Representatives passed this. In this world, pragmatism wins over
morality every time.
Miriam
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From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2019 2:27 PM
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Subject: [blind-democracy] GREG WILPERT: Welcome to The Real News Network.
Story Transcript
GEORGE W. BUSH: Today, we take an essential step in defeating terrorism while
protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans.
GREG WILPERT: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Greg Wilpert in Arlington,
Virginia.
That was president George W. Bush when he signed the U.S.A Patriot Act into law
in October of 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attack. The U.S.
Congress is
now in the process of passing a renewal of this Patriot Act. Democrats propose
the renewal in a tiny subsection of a stop gap government funding resolution so
that there would be no government shutdown for at least another four weeks. The
Patriot Act, which civil liberties have condemned for its wide-scale
warrantless wiretapping provisions, was scheduled to expire on December 15th of
this year. The renewal extends the law for another three months until March
15th, 2020.
The Patriot Act originally included authorization of indefinite detentions of
immigrants, permission for law enforcement agencies to search a home or
business without the occupant’s or owner’s consent, and permission for the FBI
and NSA to search telephone, email, and financial records without a court order.
Since its passage, many of its main provisions have been declared
unconstitutional. However, a key controversial section, number 215 remains in
place, which allows the government to collect phone metadata without court
authorization.
Joining me now to discuss the significance of the Patriot Act renewal is Evan
Greer. She’s deputy director of the organization Fight for Our Future. Thanks
for joining us today.
EVAN GREER: Thanks for having me.
GREG WILPERT: So the Patriot Act was originally supposed to be in place for
only four years, until 2005, but it has been extended for another four or five
years almost every time it expired. First, under President George W.
Bush, and then under President Barack Obama. Now, this time it’s being extended
for another three months. How big a problem, would you say, is this renewal?
EVAN GREER: This is really a huge issue. And it’s really disappointing that
this is the point that we’ve gotten to. These authorities never should have
been passed in the first place. The Patriot Act was rushed through Congress
with really no consideration for the way that it undermined basic civil
liberties.
This is one of the worst laws ever passed in U.S. history. And it enables
government surveillance at a scale that was previously impossible.
This three month renewal is really just kicking the can down the road, but
what’s problematic about that is that it really takes the pressure off of
especially Senate leadership and Mitch McConnell to do anything meaningful to
reform this bill. This is really the Democrats signaling, “Yeah, you know, we
don’t care that much about this. We’re just going to kick the can down the
road,” instead of standing firm and saying, “Look, if you want to reauthorize
this legislation you need to fix the gaping loopholes, you need to address the
widespread abuses of this authority that has been used to violate people’s
constitutional and human rights now for years and years, as you said.
GREG WILPERT: Now, several times, recently, the NSA actually requested data on
a limited number of citizens because the law has become a little bit narrower
than it was originally set up, but it then ends up receiving hundreds of
millions of records from the phone companies. For example, the NSA obtained
orders to target 40 suspects in 2018, but it ended up collecting 534 million
records according to an inspector general report, which then also concluded
that such massive data collection’s actually useless. But still, the Trump
administration and Democrats keep on wanting to renew the law. Why do you think
that is?
EVAN GREER: It’s really from pressure from the intelligence community.
Once government agencies have any type of power, they always are going to
demand to keep that power; and in fact, to expand that power. And that’s why
it’s so essential that we hold our elected officials accountable. I want to
underline something that you said there, which is that this mass data
collection–not only is it invasive, not only does it violate our rights, it
doesn’t even do what the government says it’s trying to do.
The U.S. government’s mass surveillance programs have never successfully
prevented a violent attack. They’ve never saved anyone’s life. They’re not
keeping us safe. This type of automated widespread dragnet surveillance isn’t
particularly useful for enhancing public safety, but perfect for authoritarian
control, for social control, for behavior control. This isn’t about keeping us
safe. It’s about keeping us in line.
GREG WILPERT: Now, what would you recommend to people who are opposed to this
extension of the U.S. government’s ability to engage in warrantless
surveillance?
I mean, what do you recommend that they do in order to stop it?
EVAN GREER: Sure. So, in an immediate way, this bill–the continuing resolution,
this pending bill–is coming up for a vote, literally potentially as we speak
right now. Everyone should contact their representatives and tell them to vote
against it and to make it clear that they’re voting against it because it
includes a reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Our position is that these
authorities never should have been granted in the first place.
They shouldn’t
be reauthorized for one more day, much less three more months, and certainly
not beyond that. Everyone needs to recognize that this is an issue that’s not
going to get solved overnight.
So beyond contacting your representatives today, I strongly recommend that you
get in touch with, follow, become a member of organizations that are actively
fighting against expanded government surveillance. My organization, Fight for
the Future, is one, Free Press, Demand Progress are out there doing important
work, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and many others. As well as Media
Justice, Color of Change, Racial Justice and immigration groups have been
opposing this. So get involved with some of the organizations that are fighting
government surveillance, and overly broad government surveillance, because this
is a moment where we need to draw a line in the sand. Democratic leadership are
increasingly becoming more and more friendly to surveillance.
As the Democratic Party really tries to present itself as the party of national
security, which frankly is extremely dangerous, from my perspective, we’re
seeing an erosion of willingness among Democrats to fight for policies that
protect our basic rights and civil liberties. So we can’t allow that to happen.
We, as a progressive movement, need to fight to ensure that leadership in
Congress, from both sides of the aisle, fight for meaningful reform and reign
in these government surveillance programs that are ineffective, a waste of
money, and a huge invasion of our privacy, civil and human rights.
GREG WILPERT: Okay, well, we’re going to leave it there for now. I was speaking
to Evan Greer, deputy director of the organization Fight for the Future.
Thanks again, Evan, for having joined us today.
EVAN GREER: Thanks for having me on.
GREG WILPERT: And thank you for joining The Real News Network.
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Related Bios
Evan Greer
Evan Greer
Evan Greer is the deputy director of Fight for the Future. She’s also a
musician, writer, and activist based in Boston.
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