There\u2019s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says
\nBy Spencer Ackerman – May 25, 2011 4:56 pm <\/p>\n
You think you understand how the Patriot Act allows the government to spy on its citizens. Sen. Ron Wyden says it\u2019s worse than you know.<\/p>\n
Congress is set to reauthorize three controversial provisions of the surveillance law as early as Thursday. Wyden (D-Oregon) says that powers they grant the government on their face, the government applies a far broader legal interpretation \u2014 an interpretation that the government has conveniently classified, so it cannot be publicly assessed or challenged. But one prominent Patriot-watcher asserts that the secret interpretation empowers the government to deploy \u201ddragnets\u201d for massive amounts of information on private citizens; the government portrays its data-collection efforts much differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,\u201d Wyden told Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got that kind of a gap, you\u2019re going to have a problem on your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
What exactly does Wyden mean by that? As a member of the intelligence committee, he laments that he can\u2019t precisely explain without disclosing classified information. But one component of the Patriot Act in particular gives him immense pause: the so-called \u201cbusiness-records provision,\u201d which empowers the FBI to get businesses, medical offices, banks and other organizations to turn over any \u201ctangible things\u201d it deems relevant to a security investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is fair to say that the business-records provision is a part of the Patriot Act that I am extremely interested in reforming,\u201d Wyden says. \u201cI know a fair amount about how it\u2019s interpreted, and I am going to keep pushing, as I have, to get more information about how the Patriot Act is being interpreted declassified. I think the public has a right to public debate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Wyden and his colleague Sen. Mark Udall offered an amendment on Tuesday to the Patriot Act reauthorization.<\/p>\n
The amendment, first reported by Marcy Wheeler, blasts the administration for \u201csecretly reinterpret[ing] public laws and statutes.\u201d It would compel the Attorney General to \u201cpublicly disclose the United States Government\u2019s official interpretation of the USA Patriot Act.\u201d .. .more<\/a><\/p>\n