Patriot Act Renewal
A six-month extension to the Patriot Act was granted late last night by voice vote, which allowed the Democrats and skittish Republicans (e.g., Sununu) to support the Patriot Act unrecorded while behind-the-scenes undermining it.
President Bush emphasized the Patriot Act’s importance last week in his radio address:
One of the first actions we took to protect America after our nation was attacked was to ask Congress to pass the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act tore down the legal and bureaucratic wall that kept law enforcement and intelligence authorities from sharing vital information about terrorist threats. And the Patriot Act allowed federal investigators to pursue terrorists with tools they already used against other criminals. Congress passed this law with a large, bipartisan majority, including a vote of 98-1 in the United States Senate.
Since then, America’s law enforcement personnel have used this critical law to prosecute terrorist operatives and supporters, and to break up terrorist cells in New York, Oregon, Virginia, California, Texas and Ohio. The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do: it has protected American liberty and saved American lives.
The bottom line is the Patriot Act works and is working to stop and prevent terrorist attacks. Those who oppose the Patriot Act gawk about “civil liberties” but fail to mention that the liberties they desire to protect are of those Americans and illegal aliens residing within our borders who have a fancy for communicating with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. I haven’t heard opponents groveling about the lives of terrorist-hating Americans who have been unfairly abused by the government’s use of the Patriot Act. Rather, it’s been chest pump-and-huff fest aimed at embarrassing the President that gives Al Qaeda, not America, the advantage.