Did you know that
under the USA
Patriot Act the Government can:
Label you a “terrorist.”
The
USA Patriot Act broadly expands the official definition of “domestic
terrorism,” so that student groups
and other activists that engage in civil disobedience
could very well find themselves labeled as terrorists and
have their assets seized, if members engaging in a protest
commit any acts considered “dangerous to human life” in
violation of state or federal law, including misdemeanors
(USA Patriot Act, H.R. 3162, Section 802).
Seize your student records.
The USA Patriot
Act gives law enforcement far reaching access to student
educational records without probable cause of crime. It allows
educational agencies to furnish your records to the Attorney
General (or his/her designee) -- without your consent or
knowledge -- and without any
opportunity for you or your university to challenge the secret
order before it is issued. Furthermore, the Patriot Act exempts
your college or university from any liability for
turning over your records in response to such an order (Section
507).
Search your college dorm room, apartment or home without
telling you for months or longer. 
The USA Patriot Act allows
federal law enforcement to get a court order to conduct secret “sneak
and peek” searches
of a dorm room, apartment or home. Investigators can secretly
enter your residence, take pictures, copy computer files
and seize your belongings without informing you that a search
was conducted for an indefinite period of time. The Justice
Department has recently admitted that 88% of these
"sneak and peek" searches have been carried out in cases
that have nothing to do with terrorism, and the Patriot Act
does not require any link to terrorism (Section 213).
Collect information about what books you take out of your
school library, what you study and what you purchase.
The
USA Patriot Act gives law enforcement broad access to any
type of records of the transactions of your daily life– consumer/sales,
library, financial, medical, etc. – without probable
cause of a crime or any specific facts connecting you to
a foreign terrorist. Under the Patriot Act, the federal government
can gather information about the books you buy or borrow,
but the power is much broader than that and actually applies
literally to “any tangible
thing.” It also prohibits recipients of such secret
court orders, like university librarians, from ever disclosing
to you or to the press, that they have produced
such records (Sections 215).
Collect information about your credit
history, your travel, cars you purchase, insurance records,
your Internet transactions and your financial
information.
The USA Patriot
Act gives the FBI the power to issue a National Security
Letter, demanding that any document from any organization
considered a “financial institution” (such
as banks, car dealerships, and insurance companies) without
the prior approval of the courts and without showing a court
any facts connecting you to a foreign terrorist. The recipient
of such secret letters is prohibited from ever telling
anyone about the demand for and contents of such records
(Section 505).
Other Patriot Act Factsheets >>
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