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Broken promise: Obama to reauthorize Patriot Act?

Published time: September 18, 2009 18:34
Edited time: December 15, 2009 20:44

The Obama administration has announced its support of renewing three parts of the U.S. Patriot Act that expire at the end of the year. RT’s Priya Sridhar speaks to analyst Nicole Kardell about key issues in the act.

Introduced by George Bush following the 9/11 attacks, the act increased the powers of U.S. law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism. Controversy around this legislations continues because of its lowering the standards provided in constitutional protections.

“The three of the more troubling parts of the act, one of them talked about roving wiretaps, essentially lowering standards for what the government needs in order to conduct their different searches,“ Nicole Kardell says. “The first one concerning the roving wiretaps allows reviewing business records, library records, and medical records.”

“[President Obama] promised during his campaign that he was going to look at the Patriot Act in order to reinstitute protections for the abuse of civil liberties, but he’s not making any statements on that so far,” Kardell said.

The Patriot Act essentially is removing the requirement for investigations and searches without probable cause. And people seem pretty irritated with Obama’s decision to reauthorize some of the Patriot Act, as they believe it’s the invasion of their privacy.

Comments (3)

hexxor 15.12.2009 13:34

Obama is a weak leader. The proof is that he chose to keep certain people from the previous administration.

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Terry 19.09.2009 23:08

The reason Obama is keeping part of the the patriot act is because he knows that the heart of America's people are against him. He must try to stop any opposition his administration will encounter during the Change he's talking about. He is taking over a country of compassionate people who will do anything to help other less fortunate. It is our leaders and very welthy that has made us appear to the world as greedy. The leaders are but not the true citizens of the USofA! We are proud of our country and would wish no harm on any people in any land. We have been given propaganda by our leaders to justify their greedy actions. The people in America are afraid of what is happening and would love to have the power to stop this. I would ask the country of Russia to do what they can to support the audit of the Federal Reserve. The world's problems rest there.

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MEJanssen 18.09.2009 16:20

Time for me to harangue my Congress-critters once again. This legislation was why the Bush administration was one of the worst in American history, and Obama wants to continue it? Sheesh. I hope it gets tied up in lawsuits, all the way to the Supremes.

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