GOP
wants to keep anti-terror powers
Broad
spying tools would become permanent
Wednesday, April 9, 2003
New York Times
Washington - Congressional Republicans,
working with the Bush administration, are maneuvering to make permanent the
sweeping anti-terrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after
the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said Tuesday.
The move is likely to touch off strong
objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who
believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks
is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans.
The landmark legislation expanded the
government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and
computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects. When it passed in
October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it
only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will
expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005 unless Congress reauthorizes
them.
But Republicans in the Senate in recent
days have discussed a proposal, authored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that
would repeal the so-called sunset provisions and make the expanded powers
permanent, officials said. Republicans
may seek to move on the proposal this week by trying to attach it to another
anti-terrorism bill that would make it easier for the government to use secret
surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" terrorism suspects.
Many Democrats have grown increasingly
frustrated by what they see as a lack of information from the Justice
Department on how its agents are using their newfound powers. The Senate
Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said Tuesday that without
extensive review, he "would be very strongly opposed to any repeal"
of the 2005 time limit. He predicted that Republicans did not have the votes to
repeal the limits.
A senior Justice Department official on
Tuesday said the Patriot Act has allowed the FBI to move faster and more
flexibly to disrupt terrorists before they strike. "We don't want that to
expire on us," the official said.
With the act's provisions not set to
expire for more than 2 ½ years, officials expected that the debate over its
future would be many months away.
But political jockeying over separate,
bipartisan legislation sponsored by Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y., appears to have given Hatch the chance to move on the issue
much earlier than expected.
The Kyl-Schumer measure would eliminate
the need for federal agents seeking secret surveillance warrants to show that a
suspect is affiliated with a foreign power or agent, such as a terrorist group.
Advocates say the measure would make it easier for agents to go after
"lone wolf" terrorists who are not connected to a foreign group.
The proposal was approved unanimously by
the Senate Judiciary Committee. But
Republicans were upset because several Democrats said that when the measure
reaches the Senate floor for a full vote, perhaps this week or later in the
month, they plan to offer amendments that would impose tougher restrictions on
the use of secret warrants.