Patriot Act abuses

The following are links to SourceWatch articles and external articles related to Patriot Act abuses.

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Related SourceWatch articles

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
• antiwar rallies
• Bank Secrecy Act
• biometrics
• Bush administration (See extensive list of SW articles.)
• Bush administration scandals
• Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy
• CAPPS II abuses
• civil liberties
• counterterrorism
• data mining
• Department of Homeland Security
• Department of the Treasury
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
• freedom of speech
• George W. Bush

• bank records spying
• domestic spying
• phone records spying

• homeland security
• Office of Foreign Assets Control
• Patriot Act industry
• Patriot Act I
• Patriot Act II
• prison-industrial complex
• Secret Service
• suspicious transactions
• Threat Advisory security alert nonsense
• Treating dissent as treason
• Using fear as a political tool
• War on terrorism
• watchlist
• Weapons of mass destruction
• Weapons of mass destruction investigation

External articles

Archives

• Civil Rights Headlines. Current article links.
• Giving Up the Rights We Fought For, Veterans for Peace. Current article links.

2002

• Case No. C-02-3444 SI: "John Gilmore vs. John Ashcroft, et al., filed in United States District Court, Northern District of California, July 18, 2002, posted at freetotravel.org: "On July 4, 2002, Plaintiff tried to fly to Washington, DC to petition the government for redress of grievances and to associate with others for that purpose. He was stopped because he refused to identify himself before boarding the flight. ... When he asked the airline officials why, they told him the government required that the airlines ask for ID, but they could point him to no law or regulation to support their demand. That is because no such regulation has been published. For the first time in this Nation's history, the US government is using secret regulations to restrict First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. ... Plaintiff objects to any requirement that he produce any government-issued document, whether it contains his identity or not, as a precondition of exercising his constitutional right to live or travel within the United States. Such 'internal passports' are anathema to a free society."
• Michelle Madigan, Report Card on the Patriot Act. Government cites successes, while privacy watchdogs say failures and problems aren't publicized, pcworld, October 9, 2002.
• USA-Patriot Act Abuses begin, gamersnook, December 6, 2002.

2003

• Big Hole In America's Security Net, CBSNews, May 30, 2003.
• To Expand Patriot Act Abuses, Just "Reform" It, apfn.net, June 24, 2003.
• Patriot Act Abuses Seen, CBSNews, July 21, 2003.
• New Government Report Documents Patriot Act Abuses, TalkLeft, July 21, 2003.
• Curt Anderson, Patriot Act abuses documented, Capitol Hill Blue, July 22, 2003.
• ACLU News, Summer 2003.
• Silence Isn't Golden, alternet.org, October 16, 2003.
• z2003-08-02- Patriot Act Abuses, billseitz, last edited September 12, 2003.
• Patrick Healy, Kerry pledges to end 'era of Ashcroft'. Says White House abused Patriot Act, Boston Globe, November 2, 2003.
• Richard Siegel, Local View: Anti-terrorism laws are decades in the making, Las Vegas Mercury, November 13, 2003: "America's anti-terrorism laws have been primarily identified with the November 2001 USA PATRIOT Act. In the past week, reports have made clear that the act was misleadingly sold to the American people as a tool meant exclusively to fight terrorism. It is now evident that the law is actually being used in sweeping ways that go well beyond terrorists to threaten everyone's civil liberties."
• Lisa Arthur and Amy Driscoll, FTAA Protests: Activists Say Many Arrests Were Unlawful. Public defenders and activists raise civil rights concerns as dozens of free-trade protesters face charges from disorderly conduct to aggravated assault, Miami Herald, November 22, 2003.
• Maya Bell and Sean Mussenden, FTAA Protesters Describe Security as Police State, Knight-Ridder, November 22, 2003.
• Eric Lichtblau, F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies, New York Times, November 23, 2003.
• Amnesty International Calls for Probe of Miami Protest Policing, Reuters, November 26, 2003.
• Nicholas F. Benton, Iraq War Critics Sue After Winding Up on 'No Fly' List, Falls Church News-Press, November 27, 2003: "The New York Times reported Sunday that critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy have sued the government to learn how their names ended up on a ['no fly' list] used to stop suspected terrorists from boarding planes. ... This latest politically-motivated abuse of power by the Bush administration, in particular Attorney General John Ashcroft, is only the beginning."
• Abby Goodnough, Group Wants Investigation of Police Tactics at Miami Trade Talks, New York Times, November 27, 2003.
• Jim Lobe, FBI Surveillance Plans Spur Opposition oneworld.net, November 25, 2003.
• Charlie Savage, Patriot Act Hearings Sought by Democrats, Boston Globe, December 12, 2003.
• A repressive embarrassment, Toledo Blade, December 13, 2003: "Without notification to foreign media outlets, the immigration and customs people are arresting, detaining, and deporting journalists arriving here without special visas. This is so even when they come from nations whose citizens can stay for up to 90 days without a visa if they are arriving as tourists or on business. ... If that threatening form of registration is not enough, members of the press arriving without the visas, which no one told them they needed, are treated like criminals, handcuffed as they're marched through airports, photographed, fingerprinted, and their DNA taken."
• Nina Bernstein, Crime Database Misused for Civil Issues, Suit Says, New York Times, December 17, 2003: "The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security are unlawfully using a national crime database to get local police departments to enforce civil immigration laws, ... The plaintiffs in the lawsuit ... contend that Attorney General John Ashcroft," Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI "are misusing the database. ... 'Ashcroft is not waiting on Congress, not waiting for the courts, but seizing power for himself under the guise of the war on terror,... It will work a sea change in the relations between police and immigration communities across the nation, to the detriment of us all'", said "Michael Wishnie, a lawyer for the plaintiffs and an associate professor at the New York University School of Law."
• Ashcroft Admonished for Meddling in Terror Case, Reuters, December 17, 2003: "A federal judge strongly criticized U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday for violating a 'gag' order imposed during the first terror-related trial following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States."
• Dan Eggen, Tapes Show Abuse of 9/11 Detainees. Justice Department Examines Videos Prison Officials Said Were Destroyed, Washington Post, December 19, 2003.
• Edward Wenk, Jr., Threats to Democracy at Code-Red Level, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 31, 2003.
• Mark Taylor, Northwestern escapes DOJ subpoena. Judge denies Ashcroft's request for patient medical records, Chicago Business, February 9, 2004: "A move by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to subpoena the medical records of 40 patients who received so-called partial-birth abortions at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago was halted--at least temporarily--when a Chicago federal judge quashed the information request. ... The ruling is the first in a series of subpoenas by the U.S. Justice Department seeking the medical records of patients from seven physicians and at least five hospitals, Crain's sister publication Modern Healthcare has learned. Besides Northwestern, Mr. Ashcroft is seeking patient records from University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers in Ann Arbor; Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp.; Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital both of which are part of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System; and an unidentified San Francisco-area hospital."

2004

• Ryan J. Foley, Activist group resists handing over list, AP, February 9, 2004.
• Monica Davey, An Antiwar Forum in Iowa Brings Federal Subpoenas, New York Times, February 10, 2004: "But last week, subpoenas began arriving seeking details about the forum's sponsor -- its leadership list, its annual reports, its office location -- and the event itself."

2005

• Dave Lindorff, "Black Helicopters? The GOP's Police State," CounterPunch, May 21/22, 2005.

2007

• Brian Ross and Vic Walter, "Exclusive: Report Says FBI Violated Patriot Act Guidelines," The Blotter Blog/ABC News, March 8, 2007.
• John Solomon, "Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations. After Bureau Sent Reports, Attorney General Said He Knew of No Wrongdoing," Washington Post, July 10, 2007.