FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON - Following a renewed offensive by President Bush
and Attorney General Gonzales on the Patriot Act reauthorization debate, the
American Civil Liberties Union today condemned the ongoing inaccurate and
misleading statements of the administration and said that the White House’s
unwillingness to place better, commonsense safeguards into the law are the cause
of the Congressional stalemate.
The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson,
Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
"In their efforts to get a faulty renewal of the Patriot Act
passed, the administration is continuing its campaign of deceit and misguidance.
The Patriot Act did not bring down the so-called ‘wall’ hampering
information-sharing between intelligence officers and law enforcement agents.
Information-sharing between criminal and intelligence investigators occurred
before the Patriot Act amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. More
information could have been shared than was and bureaucratic misinterpretation
helped create the wall, as the federal courts found."
"This point is supported by the FISA court and the bipartisan
9/11 Commission; even the Justice Department has admitted that there was sharing
of information between intelligence and criminal investigators. In a letter sent
to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner in May of 2003, the Justice
Department stated that there was ‘no legal impediment to introducing in a
criminal prosecution evidence obtained through FISA before the USA PATRIOT Act.’
The 9/11 Commission noted that inefficiencies within the intelligence community
were the biggest hurdle for information-sharing and that FISA did not bar such
sharing. The debate about the ‘wall’ is a red herring, an attempt to deflect
concerns about the genuine civil liberties concerns about the Patriot Act.
"Even if the Patriot Act were to expire, it would not end
current investigations. The law ‘grandfathers’ current cases, permitting foreign
intelligence investigations already in process to continue with the powers. It
is an exaggeration for the administration to claim otherwise. The changes called
for by lawmakers from both parties would place meaningful checks and balances
into the law, far better than those contained in the current compromise
agreement. The House has not adjourned sine die; lawmakers can still make
those modest corrections.
"The White House’s unwillingness to support a three-month
extension of the Patriot Act is absurd. The president and attorney general claim
that the powers are vital and yet they refuse to support a simple extension.
Supporting an extension would permit lawmakers more time to come to a consensus
on how to keep America both safe and free.
"Furthermore, recent accounts that the president authorized the National
Security Agency to engage in domestic spying without a court order and without
oversight only demonstrate the need for meaningful civil liberties protections
for innocent Americans. True patriotism requires that lawmakers not blindly
concede to the demands of the executive; it requires that they stand for our
precious freedoms and protect our Constitution."
For more on the ACLU’s concerns with the Patriot Act, go
to:
http://www.reformthepatriotact.org
