American Police State Part I
What would be your reaction if a uniformed member of the U.S. Army accompanied by military police arrived in your office and demanded to see your bank statements, financial records, emails and letters?
"This isn't a military dictatorship" you say, "That couldn't happen in America."
Yet it was revealed yesterday that the U.S. military has been doing exactly that, using so-called "national security letters" under powers claimed under the constitutionally questionable PATRIOT Act.
The military has issued at least 270 of these letters since 2005. They've also issued about 500 in all since 2001, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The New York Times first revealed the military used these letters. Since then, members of Congress and civil liberties groups have criticized the practice on grounds that it conflicts with traditional laws against domestic law enforcement operations by the military.
"The Fourth Amendment protects against the government's effort to rummage broadly through the papers and documents of individuals without narrow and specific justifications," says Arthur Eisenberg, Legal Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"Yet the excessive secrecy surrounding the military's use of national security letters opens the door to abuse. Without oversight and accountability, there is nothing to stop the Defense Department from engaging in broad fishing expeditions. The expanded role of the military in domestic intelligence gathering is troubling," Goodman said. "These documents reveal that the military is gaining access to records here in the U.S. in secret and without any meaningful oversight. There are real concerns about the use of this intrusive surveillance power."
The military is just the latest government agency to be exposed as using these letters instead of a traditional search warrant.
The PATRIOT Act extended the power of government over personal and financial records of every kind. It also throws aside previous guarantees under the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Act makes it far easier for the FBI, and apparently the military, to obtain a person's financial, medical, student or other records.
Under the PATRIOT Act, the FBI can obtain financial, medical, business, bookstore and library records, supposedly in pursuit of terrorist activities. But courts have ruled that the Act is not limited to terrorism and can be used to investigate any crime. The Act discards the traditional requirement of preexisting federal law, permitting access to records only after issuing a court order or search warrant based on finding probable cause.
Section 215 of the Act allows the FBI to order any person or entity to turn over "any tangible things," so long as the FBI "specif[ies]" that the order is "for an authorized investigation...to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities."
But instead of a normal probable cause search warrant, law enforcement authorities, and now the military, have no need to show a judge or magistrate that evidence of wrongdoing likely will be found. And the custodians who hold records being sought by the government are prohibited, under threat of criminal prosecution, from informing anyone that their records were seized.
This vastly expands FBI (and now military) powers to spy on all ordinary Americans...
What would be your reaction if a uniformed member of the U.S. Army accompanied by military police arrived in your office and demanded to see your bank statements, financial records, emails and letters?
"This isn't a military dictatorship" you say, "That couldn't happen in America."
Yet it was revealed yesterday that the U.S. military has been doing exactly that, using so-called "national security letters" under powers claimed under the constitutionally questionable PATRIOT Act.
The military has issued at least 270 of these letters since 2005. They've also issued about 500 in all since 2001, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The New York Times first revealed the military used these letters. Since then, members of Congress and civil liberties groups have criticized the practice on grounds that it conflicts with traditional laws against domestic law enforcement operations by the military.
"The Fourth Amendment protects against the government's effort to rummage broadly through the papers and documents of individuals without narrow and specific justifications," says Arthur Eisenberg, Legal Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"Yet the excessive secrecy surrounding the military's use of national security letters opens the door to abuse. Without oversight and accountability, there is nothing to stop the Defense Department from engaging in broad fishing expeditions. The expanded role of the military in domestic intelligence gathering is troubling," Goodman said. "These documents reveal that the military is gaining access to records here in the U.S. in secret and without any meaningful oversight. There are real concerns about the use of this intrusive surveillance power."
The military is just the latest government agency to be exposed as using these letters instead of a traditional search warrant.
The PATRIOT Act extended the power of government over personal and financial records of every kind. It also throws aside previous guarantees under the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Act makes it far easier for the FBI, and apparently the military, to obtain a person's financial, medical, student or other records.
Under the PATRIOT Act, the FBI can obtain financial, medical, business, bookstore and library records, supposedly in pursuit of terrorist activities. But courts have ruled that the Act is not limited to terrorism and can be used to investigate any crime. The Act discards the traditional requirement of preexisting federal law, permitting access to records only after issuing a court order or search warrant based on finding probable cause.
Section 215 of the Act allows the FBI to order any person or entity to turn over "any tangible things," so long as the FBI "specif[ies]" that the order is "for an authorized investigation...to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities."
But instead of a normal probable cause search warrant, law enforcement authorities, and now the military, have no need to show a judge or magistrate that evidence of wrongdoing likely will be found. And the custodians who hold records being sought by the government are prohibited, under threat of criminal prosecution, from informing anyone that their records were seized.
This vastly expands FBI (and now military) powers to spy on all ordinary Americans...
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