You may recall that Russ Feingold was the only United States Senator to vote against the Patriot Act when it first came up for a vote in the post-9-11 hysteria days. He had good reason to suspect that any Administration--Republican or Democratic--would make reckless use of broad new powers to spy on its citizenry. And he was right--as even fairly mainstream Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall now are saying.
Wyden and Udall are clearly biting their tongues because they are bound by an effective gag to speak openly about what the government is doing using the Patriot Act:
The Senate debate on the law featured an unusual dissent by two senators who serve on the Intelligence Committee.
Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, proclaimed that the Patriot Act's surveillance powers are being used far more expansively than most Americans realize. But they can't disclose what they know, they said, because the documents that detail how the Obama administration implements the act are classified. As members of the Intelligence Committee, Wyden and Udall are privy to secret briefings.
"Today the American people do not know how their government interprets the language of the Patriot Act," Wyden said. "Someday they are going to find out, and a lot of them are going to be stunned. Some of them will undoubtedly ask their senators: 'Did you know what this law actually did? Why didn't you know? Wasn't it your job to know, before you voted on it?' "
In an interview, Udall said he wasn't even allowed to discuss details about the government's intelligence-gathering with fellow senators unless they go to a secure room in the Capitol designed to thwart eavesdropping.
But in a statement before the vote, Udall said the law allows the government to "place wide-ranging wiretaps on Americans without even identifying the target or location of such surveillance; target individuals who have no connection to terrorist organizations, and collect business records on law-abiding Americans, without any connection to terrorism."[emphasis added]
i do not care whether this president is a Democrat. If the Patriot Act is being used to subvert civil liberties and potentially break laws by an interpretation of the laws that clearly is illegal, he and his Administration must be held to account.
This is dangerous.
10:44 AM PT: A quick scan of the comments made me think: seems to me the real issue here is not why Obama is doing this--historically, all presidents abuse the power given to them and try to push the limits of legality. The real issue is: WHAT DO WE DO? That was somewhat my hope with the diary--and maybe I should have been more explicit a la start dialing your elected leaders and demand an explanation...right, it won't change anything tomorrow or maybe a year from now. But it is far worse to let this go unchallenged.
For example: demand that the gag order on Wyden et al be lifted so they can speak about what is happening. Otherwise, we are truly living with a government that is acting deep, deep in the shadows.