Yet Another Reason to Repeal The Patriot Act

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Shamus
Its not that that they couldnt talk to each other, its that they wouldnt talk to each other.

There was more than enough information available to law enforcement in this country as to who may have been ploting somthing like this, they dropped the ball!!.

I know its true because I have heard many on this board state the fact that it's Clintons fault..he knew about it in the 90's.

We need folks who want to do the job rather than those who point out why its not possible because of those pesky constitutional road blocks.

The FBI used to be of the mindset that if they didnt develop the lead, it was not worth considering, hopefully that has changed, but you dont have to trash the entire constitution to get those guys to do thier jobs.

shamus

no by law the CIA could not share information with the FBI and so forth.  Even the 9/11 commission pointed this out.

[Stringer]

You'd be onto something, Gun, IF it was a CIA agent that raised the flag on the 9/11 hijackers, but it wasn't.  It was a FBI agent in Arizona (IIRC).

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Stringer
You'd be onto something, Gun, IF it was a CIA agent that raised the flag on the 9/11 hijackers, but it wasn't.  It was a FBI agent in Arizona (IIRC).

True but combined resources between various departments and required cooperations COULD have HELPED connect the dots. (again i'm sourcing alot of this on the 9/11 commission report)  Having said this I did not and still do not agree with yet another layer of govt that we love and enjoy called the DHS.

My point is that the patriot act while flawed in some areas is well needed in others.  If this had been a clinton law (signed under clintons watch) we probably wouldn't be having this conversation, not to say 9/11 wouldnt have happend, but that it wouldn't get the chicken little response it gets today.

Trim it down and revise some areas and let the act stand for good.

[rpm]

Originally posted by Gunslinger
oh yes.  That's a great reason to repeal the patriot act.  Lets go back to pre-9/11 where intel agencies couldnt talk to eachother and several walls where in place that won't allow us to "connect the dots" because RPM has to pay for a backround check.

Personally I think you should still have to do it but the cost should come out of DHS budget

They are not talking to each other now. They already have fingerprints of CDL drivers. It was one of the requirements when when CDL's were created to prevent multiple licenses issued to the same driver in different states. All they have to do is connect the databases and let a computer scan them. I don't think it will cost $73 a piece to do it. I agree it should come from the DHS budget.

The Patriot Act is a flawed piece of kneejerk legislation.

[Stringer]

Gun,
You work in the government.  When do combined resources ever cooperate?

Plus COULD have HELPED is a stretch.  

What's not a stretch is that 1 agency did have the information, and it was passed up among that agency, which has the power to act on it, and it didn't.

It's ostrich thinking to believe that different agencies would somehow perform better together when it's tough enough to get something moving within a SINGLE agency.

It's just creating more layered red-tape.

[Toad]

OTOH, things are working as they are supposed to work.

The Patriot is being reviewed before being renewed and the Senate has stopped renewal until several areas are revised.

Salazar expects compromise on Patriot Act

..."We're trying to strike a balance between protecting our privacy rights under the Fourth Amendment and protecting the nation from terrorism," Salazar said Thursday. "We are not a police state and people have a constitutional right to be secure in their privacy, their homes and their businesses."...

...Salazar, one of a bipartisan group of nine senators who led the Senate opposition to renewing the version of the Patriot Act that was passed by the House last month, said the key issues involve a few sections of the law, dealing primarily with what evidence federal agents must disclose in getting court approval to conduct secret searches and surveillance. "All of us want the Patriot Act renewed," he said. "I'm confident we'll come to some compromise over the sections we disagree on."...

It surely wasn't perfect when it passed. But it's being reviewed and revised by your elected leaders.

It's up to us if we don't like the results.

You all know how to e-mail and 2006 is a mid-term election in the Senate too.

[rpm]

Originally posted by Toad
It surely wasn't perfect when it passed. But it's being reviewed and revised by your elected leaders.

It's up to us if we don't like the results.

You all know how to e-mail and 2006 is a mid-term election in the Senate too.

I agree with you on most of that. It is flawed, it is being reviewed (altho Bush wanted to make it permanent) and the mid-terms are coming. From the buzz on Capitol Hill, the Republicans are facing losing their majority.

Toad, you're a pilot, let me ask you this. Did DHS run a background check on every commercial pilot after the PA? How about train engineers, ship captains, chemical plant workers and every other worker that could possibly cause a terrorist attack in any line of work and did they make those workers pay for it?

[Toad]

Oh, there was a lot of cra ppola after 9/11. I was only around for a few short months of it though and I don't remember any full background checks. Lots of fingerprinting and security badge stuff though.