Bugs, Taps And Infiltrators: What To Do About Political Spying

Bugs, Taps And Infiltrators: What To Do About Political Spying 

Organizations involved in controversial issues — particularly those who encourage or assist members to commit civil disobedience — should be alert to the possibility of surveillance and disruption by police or federal agencies.

During the last three decades, many individuals and organizations were spied upon, wiretapped, their personal lives dirupted in an effort to draw them away from their political work, and their organizations infiltrated. Hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence from agencies such as the FBI and CIA were obtained by Congressional inquiries headed by Senator Frank Church and Representative Otis Pike, others were obtained through use of the Freedom of Information Act and as a result of lawsuits seeking damages for First Amendment violations.

Despite the public outcry to these revelations, the apparatus remains in place, and federal agencies have been given increased powers by the Reagan Administration.

Good organizers should be acquainted with this sordid part of American history, and with the signs that may indicate their group is the target of an investigation.

HOWEVER, DO NOT LET PARANOIA IMMOBILIZE YOU. The results of paranoia and overreaction to evidence of surveillance can be just as disruptive to an organization as an actual infiltrator or disruption campaign.

Bugs, Taps And Infiltrators: What To Do About Political Spying is a brief outline of what to look for — and what to do if you think your group is the subject of an investigation. This is meant to suggest possible actions, and is not intended to provide legal advice.

POSSIBLE EVIDENCE OF GOVERNMENT SPYING

Obvious Surveillance

Look for:

• Visits by police or federal agents to politically involved individuals, landlords, employers, family members or business associates. These visits may be to ask for information, to encourage or create possibility of eviction or termination of employment, or to create pressure for the person to stop his or her political involvement.
• Uniformed or plainclothes officers taking pictures of people entering your office or participating in your activities. Just before and during demonstrations and other public events, check the area including windows and rooftops for photographers. (Credentialling press can help to separate the media from the spies.)
• People who seem out of place. If they come to your office or attend your events, greet them as potential members. Try to determine if they are really interested in your issues — or just your members!
• People writing down license plate numbers of cars and other vehicles in the vicinity of your meetings and rallies.

Despite local legislation and several court orders limiting policy spying activities, these investigatory practices have been generally found to be legal unless significant “chilling” of constitutional rights can be proved.

Telephone Problems:

Electronic surveillance equipment is now so sophisticated that you should not be able to tell if your telephone converstaions are being monitored. Clicks, whirrs, and other noises probably indicate a problem in the telephone line or other equipment.

Among the possible signs you may find are:

• Hearing a tape recording of a conversation you, or someone else in your home or office, have recently held.
• Hearing people talking about your activities when you try to use the telephone.
• Losing service several days before major events.

Mail Problems:

Because of traditional difficulties with the US Postal Service, some problems with mail delivery will occur, such as a machine catching an end of an envelope and tearing it, or a bag getting lost and delaying delivery.

However, a pattern of problems may occur because of political intelligence gathering:

• Envelopes may have been opened prior to reaching their destination; contents were removed and/or switched with other mail. Remember that the glue on envelopes doesn’t work as well when volume or bulk mailings are involved.
• Mail may arrive late, on a regular basis different from others in your neighborhood.
• Mail may never arrive.

Burglaries:

A common practice during the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) was the use of surreptitious entries or “black bag jobs.” Bureau agents were given special training in burglary, key reproduction, etc. for use in entering homes and offices. In some cases, keys could be obtained from “loyal American” landlords or building owners.

Typical indicators are:

• Files, including membership and financial reports, are rifled, copied or stolen.
• Items of obvious financial value are left untouched.
• Equipment vital to the organization may be broken or stolen, such as typewriters, printing machinery, and computers.
• Signs of a political motive are left, such as putting a membership list or a poster from an important event in an obvious place.

Informers and Infiltrators:

Information about an organization or individual can also be obtined by placing an informer or infiltrator. This person may be a police officer, employee of a federal agency, someone who has been charged or convicted of criminal activity and has agreed to “help” instead of serve time, or anyone from the public.

An agent may:

• Volunteer for tasks which provide access to important meetings and papers such as financial records, membership lists, minutes and confidential files.
• Not follow through or complete tasks, or else do them poorly despite an obvious ability to do good work.
• Cause problems for a group such as commiting it to activities or expenses without following proper channels, or urge the group to plan activities that divide group unity.
• Seem to create or be in the middle of personal or political difference that slow the work of the group.
• Seek the public spotlight, in the name of your group, and then make comments or present an image different from the rest of the group.

If You Find Evidence Of Surveillance:

• Hold a meeting to discuss spying and harassment
• Determine if any of your members have experienced any harassment or noticed any surveillance activities that appear to be directed at the organization’s activities. Carefully record all the details of these and see if any patterns develop.
• Review past suspicious activities or difficulties in your group. Have one or several people been involved in many of these events? List other possible “evidence” of infiltration.
• Develop internal policy on how the group should respond to any possible surveillance or suspicious actions. Decide who should be the contact person(s), what information should be recorded, what process to follow during any event or demonstration if disruption tactics are used.

If You Suspect Someone Is An Infiltrator:

• Try to obtain information about his or her background: where s/he attended high school and college; place of employment, and other pieces of history. Attempt to verify this information.
• Check public records which include employment; this can include voter registation, mortgages or other debt filings, etc.
• Check listings of police academy graduates, if available.

Once You Obtain Evidence That Someone Is An Infiltrator:

• Confront him or her in a protected setting, such as a small meeting with several other key members of your group (and an attorney if available). Present the evidence and ask for the person’s response.
• You should plan how to inform your members about the infiltration, gathering information about what the person did while a part of the group and determining any additional impact s/he may have had.More

Spotting Infiltrators

Spotting Infiltrators

I will be researching and  putting this together as a kind of series by a suggestion of a244 and for everyones benefit.  I will also comment on what I think in bold print on occasion.  shera~

“There are actually two kinds of informers. The deliberate informer is someone who infiltrates an organization with the specific intent of getting incriminating evidence against activists or even setting them up to be arrested. These infiltrators are either on the payroll of a government agency or may be hired by industry. The second type of informer is the activist-turned-informant — either unwittingly or because of pressure put on them by the authorities. Make no mistake, both kinds exist throughout our ranks and are equally dangerous.

Let’s discuss the deliberate informer (infiltrator) first. They
are often difficult to identify, they come in all ages and types, but they usually have a similar modus operandi–they come out of nowhere and all of a sudden, they are everywhere. Whether it’s a meeting, a protest, or an action, this person will be right in the thick of it.”

The above is taken from http://www.animalliberationfront.com/ALFront/ELF/sec-handbook.pdf

A few notes for the British political scene.

The authorities here, as elsewhere, work on the principle of either “Infiltrate, Subvert, Control” or “Infiltrate, Subvert, Wreck”. The goal is usually to infiltrate the group, find out a lot of information and then report back. If your activist group is involved in direct action, the infiltrator will try to cause the group to collapse from the inside but if your group is more of a lobbying group (or political party), the infiltrator is more likely to attempt to take it over and control it.

Actually the infiltrator will want some members of your activist collective to suspect them of being infiltrators. Anything that undermines group solidarity is within the domain of the wrecking infiltrator. By having group opinion divided over a particular person’s validity is very useful to the wrecker. Seeds of mistrust will be planted everywhere.

For example:
The infiltrator may attack one member (or one section) of the collective accusing them of being “racist”, “vanguardist”, “sexist”, “infiltrator”,
“mysoginistic”, “perverted”, “authoritarians”, “in it for the sex”, “conspiracy theorist” or similar. Anything that attempts to cause distrust and disharmony are in the wreckers arsenal. Anything that is hard to defend against is in the wrecker’s arsenal.

The wrecker will go to every single meeting, but probably not really take part in actions. They may be members of several unrelated groups. Activists will generally trust people pretty quickly, so the wrecker only has to hang around the scene for a month or 2 before being fully trusted. But it is not uncommon for an infiltrator to be involved for a year or more.

In order to split your activist or political group, the wrecker will try to undermine group solidarity. Creating arguments that are unrelated to the group’s focus. Stealing money and accusing others of doing this. Pointing out flaws with people in order to undermine solidarity. e.g. “They shop at tescos, wear nike, don’t recycle, fly in planes, are rich” etc. These flaws may be real, but they will be exploited by the wrecker in order to destroy your group.

Wreckers will be at every meeting, but you will probably not get to see their home. If you regularly get invited to someone’s home, they are probably not wreckers.

Sometimes wreckers work in pairs – In order to disrupt the group 2 wreckers will have cleverly-timed but meaningless arguments. They’ll argue about anything that is unrelated to the activist group. They’ll argue about fundraising, priority of actions, etc. They’ll call each other “trots”, “leeches” or try to exploit the “social anarchist v lifestyle anarchist’ divide. They’ll argue about the validity of violence, about some finer philosophical points or the merits of veganism. They’ll argue, argue argue until you all want to run away and they have suceeded. They’ll argue about sexism, they’ll argue about which book to read. They’ll argue about group direction.

A pair of wreckers may take over a mailing list by having arguments. They may also send many many mails forcing some people to unsubscribe due to excess traffic.

Some wreckers will often advocate militancy and violence. Nothing will discredit your group more than the use of violence. Be Non-violent. Wreckers will fight the police which will can cause clamp-downs on activists. We urge you all to remain non-violent for the sake of safety, public relations and outing infiltrators.more

WHAT NOT TO SAY/ “DON’T ASK & DON’T TELL

The Secret Driving Force of Communism

The Secret Force Behind Communism

A PFC and A pro-Nazi U.S. Army unit in WWII

By 1938, Nazi sympathizers who formed the German-American Bund in the U.S. conducted a summer youth camp (shown left) on Long Island for its members. The Bund reached its peak in 1939, when its members gathered at Madison Square Garden ostensibly to celebrate George Washington’s birthday, an event attended by 20,000. Despite the turnout, the group’s membership never exceeded 25,000. At the start of World War II, most Bund members were placed in internment camps, and some were deported at the end of the war.more

During World War II, the Army intentionally formed a unit chockablock with fascisti and their suspected sympathizers. What a sensible idea — much better than kicking them out into society and losing track of them.

This is all discussed in the new issue of Army Lawyer , where Fred “Three Sticks” Borch has a fascinating article about PFC Dale Maple, a brilliant young man who was born in San Diego in 1920 and who graduated from Harvard with honors but then, because he was bad, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.

In 1938 Maple becomes partial toward the teachings of Hitler and at one point is heard to say that the worst dictatorship is better than the best democracy. [taken from page 10  'Values in Conflict']

Young Maple spoke many languages. But his favorite, alas, was German. At Harvard he got kicked out of ROTC for being vocally pro-German when that just wasn’t cool, according to a separate article on him that I just read. Stymied in his hopes to do post-graduate work in Berlin, which was busy with other things at the time, he enlisted in the Army in 1942. The Army had just the place for him: the 620th Engineer General Service Company, which despite its innocuous name was actually a holding unit for about 200 GIs of suspect loyalty, many of them German-born. The unit, which was not given weapons, was located in Camp Hale, Colorado, which is far from any port, but happened to next to an detachment of German PoWs on a work party.

Sunday Feb. 20, 1944 Rocky Mountain News

And thereby hangs this tale. In February 1944 Private Maple decided it would be a good idea to help some hard-boiled eggs from the Afrika Korps escape to Mexico. Southward he drove them though New Mexico-a lovely drive, I’ve done much of it. Just across the international border, Mexican authorities caught them all and tossed them back. (Is there a derogatory term for people who illegally cross from the U.S. into Mexico, besides “stupid gringos”?) Maple was tried and found guilty and secretly sentenced to death. President Roosevelt clemently commuted his sentence to life, and he was released in 1951.more

What is Islam ? Peace (ya right ...) or knife in the back.

The FBI violated the 1st Amendment rights of hundreds of Muslims by using a paid informant to target and monitor several Southern California mosques based solely on religion, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.  Filed on behalf of three Muslim plaintiffs, the suit accuses the FBI and seven of its employees, including Director Robert Mueller, of paying Irvine resident Craig Monteilh to go undercover, infiltrate mosques and record conversations in order to root out potential terrorists.

Islamic Terror Attacks on American Soil

We recently got taken to the mat by a polite, young Muslim living in the U.K. who took issue with our oft-repeated statement that no Muslim-American lost their life to vigilante violence following 9/11.  She provided us a list of six or seven candidates and, after whittling out the ones where the killer was unknown or in cases with mitigating circumstances such as “victim was sleeping with killer’s ex-girlfriend” (and we’re not making that up), we reached a shocking conclusion: 

We were wrong. 

There is one seemingly unambiguous case that occurred in Dallas, Texas where Waqar Hasan, a Muslim convenience storeowner, was gunned down by Mark Anthony Stroman four days after the 9/11 attacks.  Stroman claimed to have been motivated by anger from watching the towers fall.  He is not exactly your average American, however, even apart from the shooting.  For one thing, he is a white supremacist who carried a felony criminal record at the time of the attack.  He also went on to shoot two more people in the weeks that followed. 

Thankfully, an American jury sentenced Mark Stroman to death.  The same cannot be said of many Muslim terrorists such as Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, who not only have sanctuary in Muslim countries, but are often treated as heroes by devout followers of Muhammad.  Nevertheless, we acknowledge that our friend is correct and that there was at least one Muslim killed in an anti-Arab hate crime in the U.S. following the anti-American hate crime on 9/11.  For anyone keeping score: 

People killed by radical Muslims on 9/11:	2,996
Muslim-Americans killed "in revenge":	1

Washington

The frequency and deadliness of international terrorist attacks continue to drop, but Al Qaeda and Islamist extremism remain an adaptable and convert-recruiting foe – as witnessed by the growing number of cases of home-grown Muslim radicals.

Those are among the findings of “Country Reports on Terrorism,” the State Department’s annual report on international terrorist activity.

Among the highlights: The world witnessed 10,999 terrorist attacks in 2009, down from a high of 14,443 in 2006 (think “height of the Iraq war”) and the lowest number in five years. Also last year, the State Department listed 14,971 fatalities from terrorist attacks – down from nearly 23,000 in 2006.  Yet whereas the report claims that Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations are losing their allure in the Muslim world, especially over a reaction to attacks that kill Muslims, a related finding is that more Western-reared individuals are hearing the siren of radical Islam.

Terrorist Attacks in the U.S. or Against Americans

The following timeline lists terrorist attacks against the United States and Americans living either in the U.S. or abroad.

1920

Sept. 16, New York City: TNT bomb planted in unattended horse-drawn wagon exploded on Wall Street opposite House of Morgan, killing 35 people and injuring hundreds more. Bolshevist or anarchist terrorists believed responsible, but crime never solved.

1975

Jan. 24, New York City: bomb set off in historic Fraunces Tavern killed 4 and injured more than 50 people. Puerto Rican nationalist group (FALN) claimed responsibility, and police tied 13 other bombings to the group.

1979

Nov. 4, Tehran, Iran: Iranian radical students seized the U.S. embassy, taking 66 hostages. 14 were later released. The remaining 52 were freed after 444 days on the day of President Reagan's inauguration.

1982–1991

Lebanon: Thirty US and other Western hostages kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Some were killed, some died in captivity, and some were eventually released. Terry Anderson was held for 2,454 days.

1983

April 18, Beirut, Lebanon: U.S. embassy destroyed in suicide car-bomb attack; 63 dead, including 17 Americans. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Oct. 23, Beirut, Lebanon: Shiite suicide bombers exploded truck near U.S. military barracks at Beirut airport, killing 241 marines. Minutes later a second bomb killed 58 French paratroopers in their barracks in West Beirut.

Dec. 12, Kuwait City, Kuwait: Shiite truck bombers attacked the U.S. embassy and other targets, killing 5 and injuring 80.

Over the course of 14 months beginning in 2006, the FBI used Monteilh to “indiscriminately collect” personal information on hundreds or even thousands of Muslim Americans, the lawsuit alleges.

Through this “dragnet” operation, the agency “gathered hundreds of phone numbers, thousands of e-mail addresses, hundreds of hours of video recordings that captured the interiors of mosques, homes and businesses, and ... thousands of hours of audio recordings,” the lawsuit alleges.

Monteilh, who has served prison time for forgery, has previously told The Times that he was recruited by the FBI in 2004 to infiltrate drug-trafficking groups. In 2006, Monteilh said, he was asked to assume the identity of a Muslim convert and go undercover to identify extremists and gather intelligence.

ACLU lawyer Peter Bibring said members of the Muslim community grew suspicious after Monteilh habitually asked probing and invasive questions about their religious beliefs, political views, loyalties and became “increasing aggressive about denouncing U.S. foreign policy.”

“Ironically, the operation ended when members of the Muslim communities of Southern California reported the informant to the police because of his violent rhetoric and ultimately obtained a restraining order against him,” the lawsuit alleged.

Bibring dismisses the idea that the FBI may have been targeting individuals already suspected of criminal activity.MORE

HEALTHCARE

Shawna Forde, Sentenced to Death

A jury in Pima County, Ariz., deliberated for four hours over two days before deciding that Shawna Forde, 43, should pay the ultimate penalty, the Arizona Daily Star reported. She joins two other women on Arizona's death row.

Forde was convicted Feb. 14 of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009, deaths of Raul "Junior" Flores, 29, and his daughter, Brisenia Flores, 9. She was also found guilty of attempted murder in the shooting of Gina Gonzalez, Flores' wife and Brisenia's mother.  Two men are also charged in the case and face trial later. If convicted, they too could face the death penalty.

During the trial, Gonzalez testified that two men and a woman claiming to be law enforcement officers forced their way into her family's home in the early morning hours. She said one man shot her husband several times and then, when 9-year-old Brisenia begged for her life, he shot the little girl twice. Gonzalez herself was wounded but survived.


Defense lawyers had argued that there was no proof that Forde was the woman who entered the home. In the sentencing phase, they sought mercy for their client, arguing that she had been sexually abused as a child and had suffered a stroke that left her judgment impaired.

Jason Bush, who prosecutors believe was been the shooter, is scheduled to go on trial March 15. Another defendant, Albert Gaxiola, faces trial June 1.


Forde was also found guilty of six other burglary and assault charges. She will be sentenced April 25 on those counts.more at source


Thank you Jason

Rahm Emanuel declared winner of Chicago mayoral election

CHICAGO — Obama's former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, is declared the winner in the race for Chicago mayor.

With 87 percent of the precincts reporting, Rahm claimed 55 percent of the votes.

For the first time in 64 years, Chicago has a new mayor.

Emanuel posted on Twitter shortly after 8 p.m. "Thank you Chicago! Your hard work & support got us here. Looking forward to working together as your next mayor. "

Protest of SB 5 in Columbus Ohio and Doors To The State House Locked

Ohio Statehouse locked amid union protest COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Democratic legislative leaders in Ohio said Tuesday that they were prepared to ask a judge to force officials to unlock the doors to the Statehouse as thousands of union protesters gathered for a hearing on a bill that would strip public employees of collective bargaining rights. Ohio Public Safety spokesman Joe Andrews says about 1,000 people have been allowed into the Rotunda and Atrium for a committee hearing on the bill and additional visitors without appointments were turned away in the interest of safety. The heightened security came after a long President's Day weekend during which unions across the state sought to mobilize their supporters against the bill and bring out big crowds. Visitors wanting to attend the hearing after doors were closed were directed to an off-site theater, where the meeting was to be simulcast.




The bill, sponsored by first-term state Sen. Shannon Jones, a Cincinnati-area Republican, would end collective bargaining rights for state workers and restrict teachers, firefighters, police, university employees and local workers in their bargaining abilities. Protect Our Protectors, a newly formed coalition of police and fire unions, urged the Ohio Senate to slow down action on the bill, which has been drawing crowds to the Statehouse for several weeks. Senate Democratic Leader Capri Cafaro sent a letter asking the chamber's Republican leaders to schedule more hearings before a vote that is expected as early as this week. Kasich, Jones and other supporters of the measure say it could help control spending and provide more flexibility for cash-strapped governments to negotiate with employees. Witnesses in favor of the bill have included local government leaders and schools superintendents who said public employee unions have too much power under the current system.

How many People Really know this, much less a candidate?

— Wichita residents came to a political forum to listen to political issues, but left shaking their heads.

"I felt i was in a loony bin the entire time. It was weird and I'm upset," said one listener.

Many say the behaviors of the candidates for mayor were inappropriate.

None of them took it seriously enough. None of them," said another listener.

They're calling comments from Scott Thode racist.

Specifically a comment he made after the crowd sang the Black National Anthem.



"He said 'I didn't know they had one and are singing one' it kind of caught me off guard," said 17-year old Jesyka Ware.

That comment upset many members of the predominately African American crowd.more

Eurofolk Population Control Coming Due To ‘Environmental Refugees’ Experts Say

Eurofolk Population Control Coming Due To ‘Environmental Refugees’ Experts Say

I had to do a double take when I came across this story:

’50 million ‘environmental refugees’ by 2020…’

After reading this, to me this is just more proof of the genocide  to the whites around the world.  It’s not like we aren’t going through are own economic shortfalls, food shortages,  prices rising,  political problems or climate changes too.

Now they are telling us we are going to have to harbor starving third world countries at our nations expense, putting us all in a Food, Economic, Religion,  Politics= RACE WAR .

We have to survive, have a job, feed and take care of our families too!Shera~

Fifty million “environmental refugees” will flood into the global north by 2020, fleeing food shortages sparked by climate change, experts warned at a major science conference that ended here Monday.

“In 2020, the UN has projected that we will have 50 million environmental refugees,” University of California, Los Angeles professor Cristina Tirado said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

“When people are not living in sustainable conditions, they migrate,” she continued, outlining with the other speakers how climate change is impacting both food security and food safety, or the amount of food available and the healthfulness of that food.

Southern Europe is already seeing a sharp increase in what has long been a slow but steady flow of migrants from Africa, many of whom risk their lives to cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain from Morocco or sail in makeshift vessels to Italy from Libya and Tunisia.

The flow recently grew to a flood after a month of protests in Tunisia, set off by food shortages and widespread unemployment and poverty, brought down the government of longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, said Michigan State University professor Ewen Todd, who predicted there will be more of the same.

“What we saw in Tunisia — a change in government and suddenly there are a whole lot of people going to Italy — this is going to be the pattern,” Todd told AFP.

“Already, Africans are going in small droves up to Spain, Germany and wherever from different countries in the Mediterranean region, but we’re going to see many, many more trying to go north when food stress comes in. And it was food shortages that put the people of Tunisia and Egypt over the top.

“In many Middle Eastern and North African countries,” he continued, “you have a cocktail of politics, religion and other things, but often it’s just poor people saying ‘I’ve got to survive, I’ve got to eat, I’ve got to feed my family’ that ignites things.”more

Revisionists having a ball with Civil War anniversary

Put on your hoop skirts, little ladies; top hats and spats for you Southern gents. Blacks, to the kitchen. It's the sesquicentennial of the "War Between the States," and we're going to have us a "Secession Ball."

Forget somber commemoration. Celebrate a victory more important than any fought on a battlefield: a triumphant revising of Civil War history by Confederate sympathizers.
"We honor our ancestors for their bravery and tenacity protecting their homes from invasion," Michael Givens, commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, told the Associated Press after attending a Secession Ball in Charleston, S.C., in December.
On Saturday in Montgomery Ala., the Sons marched to honor the 150th anniversary of Confederate President Jefferson Davis's inauguration.
Down that mint julep and just forget about race; let the reality of slavery secede from your mind as a cause of war. It had nothing to do with colored people.
Last year, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) declared April to be Confederate History Month, for the same reason given by Givens: to honor those "who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth in a time very different than ours today," the proclamation says. McDonnell came to regret it and said he wouldn't do it again.
A copy of the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States of America, on display at the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, tries to inject race into the conflict with laws such as:
"The importation of negroes of the African race from any foreign country other than the slaveholding States or Territories of the United States of America, is hereby forbidden."
But who are you going believe: that old document or, say, Virginia's new fourth-grade history textbook - "Our Virginia" - which asserts that thousands of black soldiers fought for the South during the Civil War?
Davis, the Confederate president, has been quoted many times as saying, "Our slaves were happy and content."
So let's party like it's 1861.more

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Obama and his Administration supports extending Patriot Act provisions

WASHINGTON – The House on Monday agreed to a 10-month extension of three key law enforcement powers in the fight against terrorism that some privacy advocates from both the right and left regard as infringements on civil liberties. The House measure, passed 275-144, would extend authority for the USA Patriot Act-related provisions until Dec. 8. Common ground must be found with the Senate before the provisions expire on Feb. 28.

 Bill Summary & Status 112th Congress (2011 - 2012) H.RES.79 
All Information SUMMARY AS OF: 2/9/2011--Introduced. Sets forth the rule for consideration of the bill (H.R. 514) to extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 relating to access to business records, individual terrorists as agents of foreign powers, and roving wiretaps until December 8, 2011

Bill Text
112th Congress (2011-2012)
H.R.67.IH

January 5, 2011

Mr. ROGERS of Michigan introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Select Committee on Intelligence (Permanent Select), for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

---

A BILL

To extend expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 until February 29, 2012.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Bill Summary & Status
112th Congress (2011 - 2012)
H.R.514
All Information

Amends the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 to extend through December 8, 2011, a provision granting roving electronic surveillance authority.

Amends the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to extend until December 8, 2011, a provision revising the definition of an "agent of a foreign power" to include any non-U.S. person who engages in international terrorism or preparatory activities ("lone wolf" provision).

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MAJOR ACTIONS:

1/26/2011	Introduced in House
2/8/2011	Failed of passage/not agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Failed by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 277 - 148 (Roll no. 26).

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ALL ACTIONS:

1/26/2011:

Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Intelligence (Permanent Select), for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

 At issue are two provisions of the post-Sept. 11 law that give counterterrorism offices roving wiretap authority to monitor multiple electronic devices and court-approved access to business records relating to a terrorist investigation. The third "lone wolf" provision of a 2004 law permits secret intelligence surveillance of non-U.S. individuals not known to be linked to a specific terrorist organization

.

 The main objections are to what critics see as unconstitutional search and seize authority and big government intrusions into private lives. "I believe the American people have a legitimate fear of out-of-control government," said conservative Republican Dana Rohrabacher, one of the GOP no votes. "And yes, they have a legitimate fear of out-of-control prosecutors and out-of-control spy networks." But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, argued that the courts had consistently upheld the constitutionality of the provisions and that if Congress fails to extend them, "we will forfeit our ability to prevent terrorist attacks."