NYTimes Sues The Federal Government For Refusing To Reveal Its Secret Interpretation Of The PATRIOT

As many of us are already aware, many of the "freedoms" that we fight far are not known or understood, except for those that put them in place. But, what happens when they are not understood by the people, and we rightfully as for it to be explained?

We've been covering for a while now how Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall have been very concerned over the secret interpretation the feds have of one piece of the PATRIOT Act. They've been trying to pressure the government into publicly explaining how they interpret the law, because they believe that it directly contrasts how most of the public (and many elected officials) believe the feds are interpreting the law. While the two Senators continue to put pressure on the feds and to hint at the feds' interpretation, just the fact that the government won't even explain its own interpretation of the law seems ridiculous.

Given all of this, reporter Charlie Savage of the NY Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out the federal government's interpretation of its own law... and had it refused. According to the federal government, its own interpretation of the law is classified. What sort of democracy are we living in when the government can refuse to even say how it's interpreting its own law? That's not democracy at all.

www.techdirt.com...
There is so much going on, that we are getting distracted from what the can REALLY do. Hopefully there will be a way to get this to be part of the FOIA files, because as most of us know, it takes about 50 years for many of the files to be released.

Peace, NRE.

Senators Reveal That Feds Have Secretly Reinterpreted The PATRIOT Act

We had mentioned, briefly, the amendment that Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall had tried to push for with relation to the renewal of controversial provisions of the PATRIOT Act, however didn't spend much time discussing it. The details are important -- even if we can't know what most of them are. Basically, what becomes clear is that both Senators -- who are on the Senate Intelligence Committee -- are aware of the fact that the feds have interpreted the PATRIOT Act provisions much more broadly than the wording suggests, but they've kept this interpretation secret. In other words, though the law says one thing, the federal government has announced internally that it's "interpreting it" an entirely different way, but it's kept that interpretation secret. The speculation is that these provisions are being massively abused for widespread warrantless wiretapping.

www.techdirt.com...

There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says

“We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden told Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. “When you’ve got that kind of a gap, you’re going to have a problem on your hands.”

www.wired.com... 0Index%203%20%28Top%20Stories%202%29%29


Besides what is above, there are thousands of these "bits" of information concerning the "so called" rights we thought we have. This worries me, due to the amount of protest that are happening. Not just the injustices in how these protesters are being treated, but that even though we feel that we have finally come together to fight the good fight, there may be more consequence then we once thought.

The FBI deferred comment on any secret interpretation of the Patriot Act to the Justice Department. The Justice Department said it wouldn’t have any comment beyond a bit of March congressional testimony from its top national security official, Todd Hinnen, who presented the type of material collected as far more individualized and specific: “driver’s license records, hotel records, car-rental records, apartment-leasing records, credit card records, and the like.”

Here is the link for the actual Justice Dept Interpretation.
www.justice.gov...

Peace, NRE.

Since the 2 Senators are mentioned I thought that you could also see them fighting to see "what they really have planned" for us!!

Mark Udall Pushes for Changes to PATRIOT Act



Wyden Pushes for Changes to PATRIOT Act's Secret Law

The sad thing is that I am not surprised.

So, if "ignorance of the law is not a defense", how can a person be charged with a crime that the government refuses to define?