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Home » News » Archives » ACLU of Illinois Urges Vice President to Level with American People Concerning Scope, Impact of USA PATRIOT Act
ACLU of Illinois Urges Vice President to Level with American People Concerning Scope, Impact of USA PATRIOT Act June 4, 2004 CHICAGO - Pointing to inaccurate statements made earlier this week in Kansas City, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois today urged Vice President Richard Cheney to use his remarks at a political fundraiser in Chicago as an opportunity to provide accurate, appropriate information about the Bush Administration's use of the Patriot Act and the impact of that law on average Americans. The Vice President is scheduled to appear at the Chicago Hilton and Towers on Friday evening as part of a $1,000-per-person fundraiser for GOP Senate candidate Jack Ryan. On Tuesday, the Vice President told an audience in Kansas City, Missouri that no abuses have been reported or confirmed under the Patriot Act, the massive legislation adopted six weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In fact, the ACLU currently has two lawsuits pending that challenge provisions of the Patriot Act that allow the FBI to demand and seize personal records without appropriate constitutional safeguards. "The Bush Administration has engaged in a campaign of mass deception about the Patriot Act, its impact and its reach into the lives of average Americans," said Colleen K. Connell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois. "The Vice President ought to use his appearance in the Land of Lincoln to correct his inaccurate statements from earlier this week and begin leveling with the American people about the true nature of this intrusive law." Beginning earlier this year, representatives of the Bush Administration have engaged in a series of high-profile public appearances in which they repeat myths about the Patriot Act and how it supposedly protects Americans from acts of terrorism. The Administration has claimed, for example, that the entire Patriot Act is set to expire next year. In actuality, less than ten percent (10%) of the Patriot Act expires at the end of 2005, meaning there is no urgency for Congress to make these provisions permanent this year. In a speech in Buffalo last April, President Bush asserted that the Patriot Act corrected statutory prohibitions on the ability of the FBI and the CIA to share information. The FBI and CIA always have been able to speak to one another and, in fact, they do so. Outgoing CIA Director George Tenet told the September 11th Commission that the FBI had briefed him on the case of Zacarias Moussaoui. "Protecting our civil liberties and our Constitution should not be about politics," said the ACLU's Connell. "In pursuit of a political end, the Vice President and other Administration officials have misled the American people about t he scope and impact of this law. The fact is that the Patriot Act authorizes federal law enforcement officials to gather information about Americans even if there is no evidence or suggestion that an individual is involved in any criminal act, including terrorism." Illinois U. S. Senator Richard Durbin is a sponsor - along with several Republican and Democrat members of the Senate and House - of the a measure to fix the most egregious problems with the Patriot Act, a measure titled Safety and Freedom Ensured (SAFE). The Administration has labeled SAFE as an effort to "repeal" the Patriot Act, another assertion that misleads the American people. |
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