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GWB is seeking renewal of the Patriot Act:
WASHINGTON – President Bush on Monday urged Congress to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department’s widely criticized anti-terrorism law.
"We must not allow the passage of time or the illusion of safety to weaken our resolve in this new war" on terrorism, Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department.
...The Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, bolstered FBI surveillance and law-enforcement powers in terror cases, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado for months, and allowed secret proceedings in immigration cases.
Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates lambasted the law because they said it undermines freedom.
But Bush said the act "has been vital to our success in tracking terrorists and disrupting their plans."
Finally I can post something I’ve been wanting to put up since last September. It’s from an article by Dick Morris:
Bush’s partner has been, of course, the New York City Police Department. Commissioner Ray Kelly has responded to the threats with unbelievable energy and promptness. We owe so very much to the men and women in blue for our safety. Many of the following facts come from interviews with department officials.
In March of last year, federal intelligence officials reported to the NYPD that they had noticed significant "chatter" by al Qaeda terrorists about the Brooklyn Bridge. (Apparently, the name doesn’t easily translate into Arabic.) Under the terms of the Patriot Act, which the left criticizes, federal intelligence operatives were obliged to share their findings with the NYPD – precisely the kind of information sharing so little in evidence before 9/11. As a result, the department, under Ray Kelly’s able leadership, flooded the bridge with police.
Federal intelligence officials then intercepted a communication to al Qaeda from an operative in New York that the operation against the landmark bridge was impossible because "the weather is too hot."
Bush’s military and intelligence officials got a captive, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, a top bin Laden deputy, to identify the terrorist assigned to blow up the bridge. Acting on the evidence they elicited from interrogations specifically allowed by the policies of the Bush administration, the NYPD closed in and arrested the terrorist, Iyman Faris, before he could act.
Faris’ plans for the destruction of the bridge were chillingly detailed and coincided precisely with the findings of engineers employed by the NYPD to determine how one might go about destroying the 120- year-old landmark.
If the left had its way, we never would have arrested Mohammed or questioned him without his attorney or held him for any length of time. The information-sharing required by the Patriot Act would not have happened, and the bridge might today be a haunting memory along with the estimated 10,000 people who would have perished in the attack.
The Patriot Act has been a powerful means of defending America from terrorists and should be renewed.
