Mark Udall Scares The Hell Out Of Us (Again)

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by: Colorado Pols

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Peter Roper reports:

Colorado Sen. Mark Udall and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden have released a joint letter stating that Americans would be “stunned” to learn how the FBI and the Justice Department are using sections of the Patriot Act to broadly gather intelligence based on secret legal opinions.

Thursday’s letter was an unusual public step for the two Democrats who both serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Their letter is intended to push the Justice Department into revealing secret legal opinions that have been used in the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to justify intelligence-gathering operations.

“We believe most Americans would be stunned to learn the details of how these secret court opinions have interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act,” the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder said. “As we see it, there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows.”

Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act reportedly concerns authority given to federal law enforcement to investigate business and personal records–in fact, “any tangible thing”–pertinent to anti-terrorism investigations; and, importantly, keeping those investigations secret. Unease over this particular provision has been a part of the debate over anti-terrorism policy since the 9/11 terror attacks, which makes this fresh alarm from Sen. Mark Udall even more unsettling.

So what do you think is going on? Pretend you’re Popular Science and sketch this UFO out.

8 thoughts on “Mark Udall Scares The Hell Out Of Us (Again)”

DavidThi808 says:

March 19, 2012 at 8:07 pm

that are very wrong. The executive branch is taking on more and more power unilaterally with no discussion, and not even telling people.

Kudos to both Senators for stepping up on this.

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1. Willard Smitten says:
  
  March 20, 2012 at 1:22 am
  
  That’s what the diary just said.
  
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Phoenix Rising says:

March 19, 2012 at 8:58 pm

Now being “enhanced” with secret court opinions probably granting the government even more broad power, or at least exposing the overbroad power that the government shouldn’t have in the first place.

Time to stop extending the PATRIOT Act.

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1. Craig says:
  
  March 19, 2012 at 9:30 pm
  
  Should never have been passed to begin with. If the “Republicans” want to talk about losing freedoms, they should start with their own house in this expansive, illegal, unconstitutional taking of citizens liberty. Just a complete and total outrage and has been since 2001 when the “Republicans” foisted this absolute nightmare on the American public. You want to make a compairson to Hitler? Well here it is. In the name of an emergency, we give unprecedented power to a bunch of nameless, faceless folks with no control whatsoever.
  
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  1. DavidThi808 says:
    
    March 19, 2012 at 10:06 pm
    
    A lot more that supported it (and Dems too). But this was not something rammed through by a party line vote.
    
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    1. Phoenix Rising says:
      
      March 20, 2012 at 1:30 am
      
      Ron Paul, plus Bob Ney and Butch Otter. I list Paul separately because he stands outside of the GOP establishment in so many ways.
      
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      1. RedGreen says:
        
        March 20, 2012 at 6:48 pm
        
        And as long as three Republicans stood against it, it couldn’t have been rammed through on a party-line vote, could it?
        
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        Phoenix Rising says:
        
        March 20, 2012 at 7:26 pm
        
        Only 64 Democrats stood against it – only 1 in the Senate. It had bipartisan support. Bipartisan opposition, not as much.
        
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