Holy shit, people are still afraid of terrorism?

DING DANG!

COLUMBUS, Ohio -
President Bush, facing efforts by some in his own party to scale back the post-Sept. 11 Patriot Act, says it has made America safer and should be made permanent.

"The Patriot Act closed dangerous gaps in America's law enforcement and intelligence capabilities, gaps the terrorists exploited when they attacked us on September the 11th," Bush said.

Lawmakers responded to the 2001 attacks by overwhelmingly approving the law 45 days later. It allowed expanded surveillance of terror suspects, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado and permitted secret proceedings in immigration cases.

Now, more than a dozen provisions are set to expire. Those provisions, among other things, provide authority for nationwide search warrants, enable the
FBI and intelligence agencies to share information about terrorism cases and gave the FBI the power to obtain records in terrorism-related cases from entities such as libraries.

During Bush' 2004 re-election campaign, he made preserving the law a common refrain, but he has rarely spoken of it since. His renewed focus came as Congress has begun working on the act's renewal amid fresh criticisms — from members of both parties — that it undermines basic freedoms.

Bush pressured Congress to make the expiring provisions permanent. His administration also is seeking greater powers for the FBI to subpoena records in terrorism investigations without the approval of a judge or grand jury.

"My message to Congress is clear: Terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of the year and neither should the protections of the Patriot Act," Bush told more than 100 law enforcement officers.

The president credited the law with helping to bring federal charges against more than 400 suspects — more than half of whom have been convicted — and to break up terror cells in New York, Oregon, Virginia and Florida.

He spoke at the Ohio Patrol Training Academy to highlight the case of a Columbus man, Iyman Faris, who was accused of plotting attacks on a New York bridge and a Midwest shopping mall but was tracked down with the help of the Patriot Act.

Bush said Faris met
Osama bin Laden in 2000 at an al-Qaida training camp in
Afghanistan. Later, he received instructions from top terror leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. Now, because of the Patriot Act, Bush said, Faris has provided information about al-Qaida and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved revisions to the law that would give the FBI the expanded administrative subpoena powers the Bush administration has been seeking.

But much of the debate in Congress so far has focused on possible limits to the law.

Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., want to tighten standards for the law's so-called "sneak and peek" warrants issued without immediate notification of the target and for "roving" wiretaps, and to exempt libraries from provisions that allow FBI expanded access to records.

The administration has warned that the Craig-Durbin bill would draw a Bush veto. The president did not repeat that threat, but he singled out the roving wiretap as an "especially important" tool that has been used successfully for years against drug dealers and others.

Bush also sought to defend the law by citing Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., who said she has looked into the administration's use of the Patriot Act and found no abuses.

"Remember that the next time you hear someone make an unfair criticism of this important, good law," Bush said.

Lisa Graves, the ACLU's senior counsel for legislative strategy, said the lack of a documented case of abuse doesn't mean the law doesn't violate civil liberties. She said the
Justice Department's inspector general reported that 7,000 people have complained of abuse and countless others don't even know they've been subjected to a search because the law requires that they be kept secret.

The ACLU wants the government to show evidence of a connection to terrorist activity before being allowed to search records.
 
cthulufhtagn said:
you mean the pentagon? actually there are some really suspicious things about that, some people think it was a missile or a military jet or something other than a commercial aircraft that hit the building due to the lack of debris or jet wash over the adjacent freeway right before it hit...the Government supposedly confiscated all the security tapes of nearby businesses that might have caught it on tape. i dunno if i believe it but if you look at pictures it seems like a 747 should cause a lot more damage. spooky o_O

Yeah, sorry, d'oh, I meant the Pentagon. I got confused for a second because the plane that came down in PA was headed towards the White House. I was in Cleveland when they turned that plane around to head back to DC, and the entire power grid went out. It was like a friggin' zombie town. No phones, tv, cellphones, nothing! All because of the nuclear power plant...somehow shutting off the electric grid makes a nuclear reactor perfectly safe. :loco:

Otherwise, I have a hard time believing that it was a plane that made that 20 ft perfectly round hole through the 5 inner walls of the Pentagon. You know, because how convenient was it that the wings fell off, completely disintegrated, and then all the debris of the plane after the crash also just happened to completely disintegrate....and the lawn still looks plush. Man, it would take 100 mexicans to make my lawn look that good. And I use turf builder!
 
the Government supposedly confiscated all the security tapes of nearby businesses that might have caught it on tape.

supposedelly?
I know you probably cannot fart in around the Pentagon parking lot without getting caught on tape.

Bank ATM's have cameras that record shit 24/7 ... you telling me the Pentagon cameras missed a Boieng crashing into the building?

Niggah please!
I wasn't lied to like this since living in Romania during Communism.
 
One Inch Man said:
California! How long you been on the team now? :loco:
LOL. Hey, I'd be worried that the terrorist may someday watch Superman 1, and go Lex Luther on your ass.

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Zod