PATRIOT overview

Photo by Luis Testa

LONG BEACH, Calif. -With recent condemnation of the New York Times for reporting on the government use of its “sneak and Peek” approach to the war on terror, civilians were able to see how news gatherers are able to shine the [rare] spotlight on the government’s use of the reauthorized PATRIOT Act.

On March 9th, 2006 President Bush, surrounded by House and Senate representatives, signed the reauthorization bill of the PATRIOT Act adding the “follow the money” theory. According to the White House web site, the bill enhances penalties for terrorist financing. Closing a "loophole" concerning terrorist financing through informal money transfer networks. These are the networks that the New York Times revealed in late June 2006.

“The New York times was free to do that,” Craig Smith, Cal State Long Beach Director of the Center for First Amendment Studies said. “Except they needed to think about if they were endangering National Security.”

Smith did an overview of the patriot act to see if events in the past were “more severe than legislation passed before” and concluded that there were laws that were put into effect in past crisis, which were more severe than that of the PATRIOT Act.

Under The Alien seditious Act, Newspaper editors that were critical of the president were put in jail, Smith said. In World War II a journalist revealed that the United States had broke the German code, Germans found out and changed it, causing many U.S. lives to be lost, he said. Making the Journalist job very sensitive when reporting the government’s business in war.

The PATRIOT Act, formed on October of 2001, a few weeks after the 9/11 disaster left millions of Americans in fear.

CSULB Sociology student, Maria Arias, believes the Act -intended for to benefit the people- is benefiting the government to further surveillance that does not benefit the war on foreign terrorists; giving them the right “to do as they please.”

“The PATRIOT Act infringes some of the things that we have taken for granted as freedoms,” Smith said.

The Washington Post reported the of over 200 people accused of terrorist related crimes, but only 39 people were convicted, Chuck Baldwin said in a report. Tova Wang of the Century Foundation said that the government is labeling as potential terrorists civilians related to crimes that involve money laundering, Sex crimes, Internet hacking and drug related incidents.

“The government needs to do what it needs to do to take care of its citizens,” Smith said. “What people worry about is that they use that as an excuse to go after other people for crimes that are unrelated to terrorist activities and that becomes part of the problem.”

Student Journalist, Sara Esquivel, feel that the PATRIOT Act can affect a studnet research in public universities libraries abut Muslim, Palestine, or Islamic cultures. Since with the Act, Government officials like the FBI, could see these research topics as [red alerts] in a terrorist activity.

According to a report by J Oneill of the Dallas Morning News, Universities are pushed to comply with a federal communications commission law to “change routers and switches" to make it easier to wiretap and eavesdrop Internet based communication.

“As a professor I could do research on topics and don’t expect the government to be monitoring what I’m checking out of my school library, what I’m doing online, who I’m e-mailing,” Smith said.

But the patriot act does just that.

Cal State Long beach student, Hector perez commented reading, “This Phone is Tapped” in fine print underneath a near by public phone.

Article 215 of the patriot act states that the FBI could seek an order to search under the production of any “tangible thing,” which includes papers, notes, records and documents. The Privacy Act, which protects newsroom searches by officials, will not protect a newsroom covering the government on terrorist activities if they have a reason to believe a news gatherer may be involved with anything that categorizes them as a terrorist. Furthermore, Acording to the American Library Association section 215 will also forbid the search to be revealed. However, the Reauthorized PATRIOT Act can now be challenged after one year of the search if the government acted in ‘bad faith.’

Dean Baquet, editor of the Los Angeles Times, which also ran the story about foreign currency transfers, said in a report that the press has the obligation to cover the government and help citizens make their own decision on activities that can threat civil liberties. He also said that covering these issues is “the role of the press in our democracy,” a report by LA Times said.

“It is scary to think how long this law will go in to effect, or if it will continue to restrict even more of our rights,” Arias said.

Smith noted that as we come out crisis that infringed our rights, we have straightened the First Amendment when we have come out of those types of situations. The government tends to restrict our rights to protect national security, but when the crisis is solved the government will restore those rights, Smith said.

“Hopefully when we get over the security problem of the United States will again return to a very strong First Amendment,” Smith said.

To find out more information abut Cal State University Long Beach First Amendment Center please go to csulb.edu. For information on the Reauthorized PATRIOT Act please visit whitehouse.gov. To contact writer please e-mail at Ltesta@csulb.edu.

PATRIOT Act Reauthorized

House and Senate representatives surrounded President Bush as he signed away the Reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act on March 9, 2006. The Act that According to government officials is “vital to winning the war on Terror and protecting American people,” a report on the White House website said. The reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act covers most of the same information it did before, but according to the American Library Association is slightly more Stringent.

-The new legislating allows the FBI to obtain library records from anyone if they show reasonable grounds that the records relevant to authorized investigation dealing with terrorism or clandestine Intelligence activities.

-Gag orders can now be challenged after one year of search or investigation.

-Under section 215, the recipient of a security order can consult an attorney and not required to inform of the attorney whom disclosure will or was made.

-It also infiltrate Terrorism financing, which closes a “loophole” concerning the financing of terrorist activities.

-It fights methamphetamine Abuse, which the bill is meant for the government to keep track of large purchases of ingredients used for methamphetamine manufacturing.

Interview with CSULB Center of First Amendment director

In an Interview with Cal State Long beach’s Center for First Amendment Studies Director, Craig Smith, I was able to gather more information regarding his views and writings on the PATRIOT Act. I first started by asking about his historical and personal view on the subject. He also cave me good information relating how The PATRIOT Act is affecting the first amendment and compared it with some similar incidents in U.S. History.

PATRIOT Act and Privacy Protection Act

Reading over my communication law book to study for my upcoming test, I came across the Privacy Protection act of 1980. This Act made most newsroom searches by law enforcement agencies unlawful, making these types of searches very rare. Waine Overbeck wrote in his book, Major Principles of media law that “Under the Privacy Protection Act, law enforcement officials are prohibited from conduction searches and seizures involving documentary materials held by the newsgatherers except under limited circumstances.” These circumstances are if the newsgatherer is suspected of a crime, to prevent someone’s death, if giving a subpoena would result the materials destruction, or if tey ere not result of court order and affirmed on appeal. Then the question comes: Can journalists and newsrooms be searched under the patriot act?

A report called the PATRIOT Act and Beyond by the Reporters Committee of Freedom of the Press, answered most of my questions. The report showed how the Act, which is meant to trap and suppress terrorists, also compromises the ability for journalists to report on the war on terror. It states that Journalists should be aware of government laws that able them to wrap themselves in secrecy. The secrecy that now the patriot act protects. RCFP said the newsroom searches are allowed under the patriot act. Under Article 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the FBI could seek an order to the search under production of any tangible thing, which includes papers, notes, records, documents. The Privacy Act would protect a newsroom covering the government on terrorist activity, but not under the PATRIOT Act. Since the Privacy Act only applies to criminal investigation, and the FBI has made it clear that the PATRIOT Act is subject to any investigation to protect against international terrorism, the article said.

Another thing to note is that section 215 will also forbid the search to be revealed. However the new and improved PATRIOT Act has made it are eligible for petition to complain about a search and will have to wait 365 day period after persuading a federal judge that the government acted in bad faith, a report by James Bovard said.

Return to sender

In a recent USA Today report by Richard Willing, U.S. Justice Department figures showed that last year 9,254 national security Letters concerning 3,501 Individuals were served by the FBI.

“These letters are valuable to the bureau’s post -911 mission to disrupt terrorists,” FBI assistant director David Szady said in the report.

These letters are meant for investigators to move from suspect to suspect to allow investigation on specific individuals that may pose treat to national security. The letters are sent to people or record keepers to acquire otherwise restricted information. However, before the Act was revised in March, the FBI did not have to disclose how many letters were issued to the public. Making it hard to determine how many civilians were actually being investigated. This could be a benefit for reporters that want to acquire this type of information. But because the recipients are hardly ever named, it makes it hard to know how the letters are used, Willing said in the USA Today Report.

A Historic Context

To understand a little more on the patriot act and its effects on the media, one must understand its historic context. Craig R. Smith, a professor at California State University Long Beach put together an article called The Patriot Act in Historic Context that follows how accurate accounts in the nations history which have lead to the tampering of our civil liberties.

Though the patriot act seems to be something new that is affecting us today, there are many similar government actions that have affected civilians and the first amendment in some way. The government did what eve they could to fight external threat to the country. Many times affecting peoples rights by treating them as if they were part of the problem. This included blacks, foreign ethnicities, even journalists and activists. This lead to even more suppression, allowing laws and rulings that influenced the constitution.

There was a pattern that happen all through U.S. history and affected many people on the way. Examples include the McCarty era, where many citizens lost their right when the government blacklisted them as communists. Or even Alien Sedition Acts, which John Adams helped pass in earlier history, which caused Newspaper editors, protesters and even a congressman to be jailed, Smith said.

To Read The Patriot Act in Historic Context click here.

Patriot act affecting colleges

Looking in to how the Patriot act affects students in college campuses, I ran in to an article put by the American Librery Association that went over the issues. It was quite interesting how much of our private records could be obtained by the FBI.

According to the report, over 200 collages have turned in student information that include personal field of study, activities, attendance, medical records among other personal information to the FBI, INS or government officials. Students and faculty can be under surveillance when using e-mail and Internet communications, purchasing books or using the library.

One of the parts of this article that I find may affect me as a student and Journalist in training is how The Patriot Act may suppress me from academic freedom. According to the article “the government or universities may institute policies that prohibit the research and writing around certain topic areas in the interest of “national security.”” This means that if I was to do research from the school library a related topic for a academic paper, or a story for the school newspaper, I could be restricted from doing so.

According to James O’Neill of Dallas Morning News, in 2004 the United States Justice Department asked the Federal communications Commission to reinterpret a 1994 law to make it easier for federal officials to wiretap Internet-based communication. After the FCC complied each university would spend millions of dollars to be able to look into faculty and students e-mail and web-based communication, the article said.

It is important that students are aware of the issue, to see other issues schools face please click on the links below.

Patriot Act on college campuses

Journalists report on terror surveillance program

New York Times, followed by the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times have published a news story that according to government officials have tampered with our country’s security. The New York Times is going under investigation for the violation the Espionage act, because of a published article that could aid the enemy at a time of war. Dean Baquet, editor of the Los Angeles Times explained that his decision to publish the article was not taken lightly, but felt that the press has the obligation to cover the government and help citizens make their on decisions on activities that can threat civil liberties. Sheryl Stoleberg wrote in the New York times that Attorney general Alberto Gonzales believes the article alerted al Queda to the National Security Agency’s electronic surveillance act, and now could have injured the United States. However, Baquet states that covering these issues is “the role of the press in our democracy.”

Later the house voted to condemn the leaks of the news reports, Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Lueck said. Lawmakers approved a resolution saying that news reporters should cooperate with the government to protect the lives of the American people. The report also stated that Executive editor of the new York Times said in a statement that the Bush administration did not make it very convincing by saying that the financial-tracking program presented such a danger.