cannabisnews.com: Senate Passes Anti-Terrorism Bill





Senate Passes Anti-Terrorism Bill
Posted by FoM on October 12, 2001 at 10:48:51 PT
Breaking News
Source: Associated Press 
The Senate voted Thursday to give police broad new wiretapping authority and other tools to pursue suspected terrorists and to increase and federalize security on airliners and at airports. Hours after unanimously passing a bill to overhaul protections against terrorism in aviation, the Senate approved a compromise bill negotiated with Attorney General John Ashcroft authorizing the use of roaming wiretaps and new subpoena powers against suspected terrorists. 
The Bush administration had urgently pressed for the two measures as a response to the Sept. 11 hijacked airliner attacks in New York and Washington. But both had been stalled for two weeks, the anti-terrorism bill over civil liberty concerns and the aviation security bill over efforts to add aid for laid-off airline workers and money for Amtrak. The Senate passed the anti-terrorism legislation 96-1. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., cast the only dissenting vote. Feingold had failed in a last-ditch effort to tone down parts of the bill's police powers, and grew angry that the bill, which came straight to the floor, was moving so fast. ''What have we come to when we don't have either committee or Senate deliberation or amendments on an issue of this importance?'' he said. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who negotiated with Senate Republicans and the administration to come up with the final version of the bill, conceded that the legislation ''is really not the bill that any of the 100 here would have written, but we can't pass 100 bills.'' ''What we have done is put together the best bill possible,'' he said. The House is expected to take up its version of the bill today. Both the House and Senate measures would expand the FBI's wiretapping authority, impose stronger penalties on those who harbor or finance terrorists and increase punishment for terrorists. But unlike the House anti-terrorism bill, the Senate measure has no expiration date on the new police powers and also includes money-laundering legislation requested by the White House. The administration has been trying to get the House to drop its request for a sunset provision, and House and White House negotiators appeared close to a deal Thursday that would extend the new wiretapping laws for five years, instead the two years currently specified in the House bill, said a spokesman for House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. A two-week stalemate on the aviation bill was broken Thursday when a procedural vote went against an amendment to link the bill to a $1.9 billion package to help laid-off aviation workers. Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., author of the amendment, withdrew it after the vote, opening the way for passage of the bill. Source: Associated PressPublished: Friday, October 12, 2001Copyright: 2001 Associated PressRelated Articles:Don't Oversell an 'Idea War'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10977.shtmlAshcroft Takes Terror Case To Senate http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10971.shtmlTerror Bill Clears Senate - Wired Magazinehttp://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47522,00.html
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Comment #6 posted by Dan B on October 13, 2001 at 11:44:54 PT:
In Case You Were Wondering . . .
This is S.1510--the bill dddd warned us about. I thought I'd clarify that because the Senate has had numerous anti-terrorism bills introduced, but this one was likely the most scary of them all. I should also note that Senator Feingold, the only senator to vote against this bill, proposed three separate amendments:S.AMDT.1899 To make amendments to the provision relating to interception of computer trespasser communications.S.AMDT.1900 To limit the roving wiretap authority under FISA.S.AMDT.1901 To modify the provisions relating to access to vusiness records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.You can find links to the full text of these amendments at http://thomas.loc.govOf course, they are now a moot point because the Senate decided to table all amendments and passed the bill as it was written. The House experienced a similar fiasco: several amendments were put into place that would have limited the scope of the "new powers" afforded to the federal government "to fight terrorism," and all were shot down--after which an overwhelming majority let the House bill pass. Once the two governing bodies come together to talk about a "compromise," you can bet that any sunset clauses in the House version will be scrapped, and we will be stuck with this situation until this government is overthrown.Dan B
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Comment #5 posted by freedom fighter on October 12, 2001 at 17:24:59 PT
CannabisMilitia
Now is the time to create CannabisMilitia.org... Today is the day we all should be sad. I know I am.ff
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on October 12, 2001 at 15:47:46 PT
Hi MikeEEEEE
This is a government article. Is this what you mean?
Senate and House Approve Similar Anti-Terrorism Bills 
http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=01101202.plt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by MikeEEEEE on October 12, 2001 at 15:33:42 PT
Low points
Could someone list or link to these new laws? I'd like to see how our civil liberties are being trashed.
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on October 12, 2001 at 11:20:32 PT:
Remember this day
Remember it well. For it will be the day that future historians may point to and say that this was the final nail in Freedom's coffin in the US of A.In a fit of unthinking, supreme irony, they refer to it as the PATRIOT legislation. Left is right, up is down, black is white...and treason is patriotism. And vice versa.Canada is looking better, day by day...
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on October 12, 2001 at 11:06:29 PT:
Where Were His Kind Then?
''What have we come to when we don't have either committee or Senate deliberation or amendments on an issue of this importance?'' he said. Too bad Mr. Feingold had no counterpart in the Senate in 1937 when cannabis was killed under false pretenses.
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