from: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0411patriot11.html

Critics leery of expanding federal power in terror war
Charles Pope
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Apr. 11, 2003 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - With the war on terrorism lagging behind the war in Iraq, Republicans in Congress and the White House are pushing legislation that would give federal authorities sweeping - and, according to critics, troubling - new powers to monitor, track, profile, and even revoke citizenship of U.S. citizens.

The effort is being directed along two controversial fronts, involving current law as well as new proposals.

On one track, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, with the backing of the White House, wants to make permanent the provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the sprawling 2001 law that was hastily passed only weeks after the Sept. 11 attack.

The law greatly expanded the government's ability to search records and monitor people and their property. It gave the government new authority to conduct surveillance with minimal judicial oversight and created a broad new definition of "domestic terrorism" that could lead to the investigation and prosecution of persons engaged in political protest.

It also gave federal agents the power to survey all book and computer records at libraries, and permitted non-citizens to be jailed without formal charges for six months.

Because of concerns that the law might go too far and harbor unintended consequences, Congress stipulated that the Patriot Act dissolve in 2005. But Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said this week that he wants to make the law permanent.

At the same time, the Bush administration is drafting new legislation, dubbed Patriot II, that would provide federal agents even more authority to issue wire taps, conduct "data mining" and monitor people who are presumed or known to have terrorist connections.

Not surprisingly, the proposals have generated fierce resistance on Capitol Hill and from civil liberties groups.

"We know the government has used some of these laws incorrectly, and we know that this has been the least cooperative Justice Department in anyone's memory," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in response to Hatch's plan to strip the "sunset provision" from the Patriot Act.

"History shows that a government that doesn't want oversight often is a government that has something to hide."

The Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union wrote to the state's two senators Wednesday urging them to oppose Hatch.

"After a mere 18 months since the enactment of the legislation, it is simply too soon to measure the impact of these provisions and move to make them permanent," said the letter to senators Dick Durbin and Peter Fitzgerald.

Hatch declined to comment, but Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the law has been crucial in the fight against terrorism.

"The Patriot Act gives us the tools we need to better protect American public while also protecting civil liberties," he said.