Homeland Fear Hearing Today, No Patriot Act Reform Hearings
When the Senate passed an extension of the Patriot Act without any reforms at the end of February on an anonymous voice vote, the justification was that the extension would give the Senate the time it needs to figure out how to reform the Patriot Act. Of course, the Senate has already had nearly nine years to come up with a plan for reforming the Patriot Act’s abuses against Americans’ constitutional right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
A good measure of how serious the Senate is about reforming the Patriot Act is its committee activity on the subject. To what degree is the Senate making use of the extension of the Patriot Act to work to reform the law?
There have been no hearings scheduled in the Senate to consider reforming the abuses of Patriot Act intelligence powers. What have been scheduled are hearings that consider expanding government intelligence powers even further.
One such hearing will be held this morning at 10:00 by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The hearing, alarmingly entitled, The Lessons and Implications of the Christmas Day Attack, will use the completely failed attempt by a bumbling teenager to conduct a terrorist attack as an opportunity to attempt the American people that they are in terrible, constant danger of terrorist attack.
Three witnesses will appear at the hearing. These witnesses will be from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA and the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program
Center for Strategic and International Studies. No advocates for the constitutional rights of American citizens have been invited.
