Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 15. Juni 2005 / Time Line June 15, 2005
Version 3.006/15/2005
HOUSE HANDS BUSH A DEFEAT -- VOTES TO CURB PATRIOT ACT LIBRARY
PROVISIONS
NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 11, #28; 23 June 2005)
On 15 June 2005, in a stunning 238 to 187 victory for the library
community, the House approved an amendment to the Patriot Act that
bars the Department of Justice from using any appropriated federal
funds to search library and bookstore records under provisions of
the Patriot Act.
The amendment, remarkably similar to the "Freedom to Read
Protection Act" that was attached to the House
Science-State-Justice Subcommittee appropriations bill, was
advanced by Representative Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and endorsed by a
curious coalition of some 38 House conservatives worried about
government intrusion and about 200 Democrats concerned about
personal privacy. One House aide referred to the victorious
coalition as "the crazies on the left and the crazies on the right,
meeting in the middle."
Far from being "crazies," the library community has long argued
that certain provisions in Section 215 of the Patriot Act are
draconian. When the Patriot Act was enacted in 2001 it granted
broad new powers to the FBI to access what the law merely defined
as "tangible things" from libraries, bookstores, and other records.
All that was needed was a warrant issued by the government's secret
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or "FISA" court. The effect
of the provision was to make permissible what Patriot Act critics
characterized as "fishing expeditions" by FBI agents who could
investigate, among other things, what library patrons were
reading.
The House passed measure mandates that security officials would
need to obtain a standard court-ordered search warrant issued by a
judge or a subpoena from a grand jury in order to seize records
relating to a suspect's reading habits. In other words, the Sanders
amendment restores legal standards and warrant procedures for
investigations of library and bookstore records that were in place
prior to enactment of the Patriot Act.
Administration officials claim that national security officials
have never invoked the provision against a library or bookstore;
nevertheless, one administration official did not hesitate to
declare that "bookstores and libraries should not be carved out as
safe havens for terrorists and spies who have, in fact, used public
libraries to do research and communicate with their
co-conspirators." The House Republican leadership hopes to have the
provision removed when a conference committee meets to work out
differences between the House and Senate passed versions of the
bill.
06/15/2005
CONTRACTS from the United States Department of Defense
Northrop-Grumman Space and Mission, Clearfield, Utah, is being
awarded a $5,932,141 cost-plus award-fee contract modification to
provide for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Reentry Vehicle
Application Program objectives, which maintain the critical
attributes necessary to address problems and issues with existing
operational reentry systems through retirement and ensure the
long-term availability of components and reentry systems industrial
base to support replacement follow-on systems. At this time,
$870,558 of the funds has been obligated. This work will be
complete by June 2007. Negotiations were completed March 2005. The
Headquarters Ogden Air Logistics Center is the contracting activity
(F42610-98-C-0001).
 |
 |