The House Judiciary Committee marked up an amendment to the USA PATRIOT Act today. The Democrats succeeded in seriously watering down a number of provisions and in deleting one key section entirely – the so-called “lone wolf” provision, which was passed in added because of limitations that had kept the FBI from searching the computer of Zacharias Moussaoui, 9/11’s 20th hijacker.
The FBI believed it had no authority to access Moussaoui’s laptop because existing statutes only permitted such searches in cases where suspected terrorists was working with a foreign power. Had the government been able to search Moussaoi’s computer, it is likely 9/11 never would have happened. A sobering thought.
Under the lone wolf provision, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is applicable to individuals “engaged in terrorism or the activities thereof”, even if they are not acting on behalf of a foreign power. Some have argued that the FBI could have gained access to Moussaoui’s laptop under existing statutes. But the fact that the FBI believed it couldn’t – and therefore didn’t – and that the lack of clarity regarding solo actors resulted in the loss of untold lives – those killed on 9/11 as well as those killed in subsequent military actions – demonstrates the need for the provision.
In spite of the fact the prior administration liked to take credit for not having had another terrorist attack on U.S. soil, we have experienced a number of events with all the markings of lone wolf terrorists, including the 2001 attempted bombing of an American Airliner by Richard Reid (who continues his attacks on the U.S. from prison), the July 2002 shooting of El Al Airline employees at LAX, and the June 2009 shooting at a Little Rock recruiting office – just to mention a few.
I find it so ironic that the same party to eliminate the lone wolf provision is also twisting arms to get its health care overhaul through Congress. How is it that people who take such an expansive view of the federal government’s authority to regulate every facet of human living hold such a narrow view of the authority of the federal government to protect us from those who want to see us dead?
They will empower the federal government to reach obscenely deep into our pockets, yet will tie the hands of the same government when it tries to protect its citizens from those who seek to kill us – which is, not incidentally, the first function of government. All liberties flow out of the premise that you will be alive to exercise them.
I love your sense of irony. What I find truly ironic is that the Republican party is so willing to expand police powers, yet unwilling to expand government powers to provide healthcare. Why can we trust government to surveil us, but not to assist in assuring we are provided with healthcare? As you say in your closing sentence: all liberties flow out of the premise that we will be alive to exercise them. I’m a hell of a lot more likely to have all my liberties stripped by cancer than by terrorists.