The ACLU Looks to Revise Patriot Act

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the security measures of the Patriot Act enacted by Bush administration after the September 11th events have led to numerous abuses.

“The Patriot Act has fundamentally altered the relationship between Americans and their government,” the organization explains in their report “Reclaiming Patriotism.”

The Patriot Act consists of a number of measures, originally temporary but extended in most cases in 2005, notably allowing the American government to monitor and seize personal data on anybody without justification or prior legal authorization.

Increasing Surveillance Orders

However, Congress is supposed to investigate repelling some measures when they expire in December 2009. The ALCU noted that since these laws were adopted without debate over 45 days after September 11th, there has been an ever increasing number of surveillance orders, reports on suspect activities and National Security letters, secret demands for personal information (including Internet correspondence) on somebody.

According to the ACLU, the number of pursuits for terrorist activities has decreased at the same time.

The report shows that just after the Patriot Act was passed in 2002, the authorities have produced 281,000 reports on people performing “suspicious activities.” This number had reached 1,250,000 in 2007. If in 2002, 1,228 orders to watch foreigners have been processed, this figure would have reached 2,370 in 2007.

Criminalization of Political Militantism

The ACLU also affirms the clause forbidding any material help to terrorism, which led to a criminalization of political militantism and an impediment on humanitarian help missions. For example, it had been difficult to send relief to the Sri Lanka, after the 2004 tsunami because some of the Sri Lankan territory was controlled by rebels.

Half of the pursuits concerning material help to terrorism have been closed without sentencing, the ACLU remarks.

Finally, the organization contests the measure about “ideological exclusion” which allows access to U.S. territory to be denied to foreigners based on their ideology. “This would allow the government to decide which ideas Americans may hear,” explains the association, then citing the example of intellectual Tariq Ramadan, who had been denied the right to enter the USA in order to give a conference.