Patriot Act used on common criminals

PHILADELPHIA - In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained fresh powers to help them track down and punish terrorists, police and prosecutors have increasingly turned the force of the new laws not on al-Qaida cells but on people charged with common crimes.

The Justice Department (news - web sites) said it has used authority given to it by the USA Patriot Act to crack down on currency smugglers and seize money hidden overseas by alleged bookies, con artists and drug dealers.

story.news.yahoo.com.../ap/20030914/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/anti_terror_laws_2

It's not about terror, it's about civil liberties.





[Edited on 15-9-2003 by Mycroft]

A similar thing is happening in England. TI was at an anti-arms far demo in Londond and people were being illegaly stopped and searched under the terrorism act. having these new laws to help "the war on terror" it is actually just helping to take away our rights.

I have mentioned many times that the Patriot Act has NOTHING to do with protecting the US from terrorism, but has EVERYTHING to do with eroding personal freedoms and personal privacy.

What can you say when the Air Marshall program, which is currently falling apart due to massive mismanagement and rampant employee disruption and lack of morale, threatens to use the Patriot Act to find those who leak such information to the media?

If you think this is bad, wait till Patriot II/Victory comes around.

If you think this is bad, wait till Patriot II/Victory comes around.

Is this already in the works? Do you know anything about it ?

Patriot Act II (rebranded Victory Act) has been discussed at ATS for weeks, it consolidates and expands powers enacted by the first.

Try the ATS search button.


And here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[Edited on 16-9-2003 by MaskedAvatar]

ok thanks. Sorry I havn't read it before, havn't been on ATS that long. I do truly think it's terrible how governments (especially U.S and U.K as I can tell) have been exploitng the "war on terror" and using it to takeaway peoples rights.

It is, in my opinion, the greatest swindle/hoax/conspiracy of the modern era (measurable in terms of how many people had to be swindled by it and the extent to which power has had to be usurped to achieve it).

It will obviously lead to no good.

However, one of the most important results to come out of it ought to be the criminal trial and punishment of most of the players in the Bush administration itself, under its provisions. (Racketeering and treasonous behavior being two that can be radically enforced under various provisions). Unless, of course, 'president' Bush has signed a furtive Executive Order or two that exempt he and his other assholes from trial under the provisions of these stupid pieces of legislation.

Somebody does seriously need to bring so many facts like these to the public and confront the Bush administration about all the # that they have done. It's sad that in the post-9/11 climate people have become so "patriotic2 that they wont dare question the administration for its terrible, oil mongering actions abroad, among many other things. It is great though to see Bush's popularity quite rightly going down as of late.