Patriot Games
Byron York:
"...Sen. John Edwards delivered an impassioned denunciation of the Patriot Act, the administration's key law-enforcement tool in the war on terror. Edwards said he wanted to see a "dramatic revision" of the act, which he said gave Attorney General John Ashcroft the power to invade the privacy of ordinary Americans under the guise of fighting terrorism.
"The last thing we should be doing is turning over our privacy, our liberties, our freedom, our constitutional rights to John Ashcroft," Edwards said. "The notion that they are going to libraries to find out what books people are checking out, going to book stores to find out what books are being purchased...runs contrary to everything we believe in this country."
"What made the statement so extraordinary was that even as he leveled his accusation, Edwards either knew or should have known that the Justice Department had never — not even once — used the Patriot Act to go into any library and obtain anyone's records. As the attorney general revealed Wednesday, the Department has never used Section 215, the controversial portion of the act that allows terrorism investigators to view library, business, medical, or other records after receiving a court's permission to do so. "The number of times Section 215 has been used to date is zero," Ashcroft wrote in a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller."
Byron York:
"...Sen. John Edwards delivered an impassioned denunciation of the Patriot Act, the administration's key law-enforcement tool in the war on terror. Edwards said he wanted to see a "dramatic revision" of the act, which he said gave Attorney General John Ashcroft the power to invade the privacy of ordinary Americans under the guise of fighting terrorism.
"The last thing we should be doing is turning over our privacy, our liberties, our freedom, our constitutional rights to John Ashcroft," Edwards said. "The notion that they are going to libraries to find out what books people are checking out, going to book stores to find out what books are being purchased...runs contrary to everything we believe in this country."
"What made the statement so extraordinary was that even as he leveled his accusation, Edwards either knew or should have known that the Justice Department had never — not even once — used the Patriot Act to go into any library and obtain anyone's records. As the attorney general revealed Wednesday, the Department has never used Section 215, the controversial portion of the act that allows terrorism investigators to view library, business, medical, or other records after receiving a court's permission to do so. "The number of times Section 215 has been used to date is zero," Ashcroft wrote in a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller."
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