Originally published February 12 2006
Bush lobbies for permanent extension of Patriot Act
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
President Bush wants lawmakers to act on a permanent renewal of the Patriot Act, which allowed the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers to grow. Congress has approved a one-month extension of the law in its current form.
President Bush is taking advantage of a winter congressional recess to lobby for permanent extension of the terror-fighting USA Patriot Act and rap lawmakers who thwarted it in a rush to recess last month.
"And I expect Congress to understand that we're still at war, and they got to give us the tools necessary to win this war."
During a White House meeting with federal prosecutors Tuesday, Bush said lawmakers must act on a permanent renewal of the Patriot Act, which expanded the government's surveillance and prosecutorial powers against suspected terrorists, their associates and financiers.
Noting that the Patriot Act was approved overwhelmingly not long after the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, he said political considerations now were getting in the way.
"When it came time to renew the act, for partisan reasons, in my mind, people have not stepped up" to renew the act, he said.
Many key provisions of the law were to expire Dec. 31.
Amid a debate over whether the act sufficiently protects civil liberties, most Senate Democrats and a few Republicans united against legislation that would have made several of the expiring provisions permanent while extending others for four years.
In a move the White House adamantly opposed but later accepted, Congress approved a one-month extension of the law in its current form to allow the contentious debate to continue, which will take place when Congress reassembles later this month.
Later, outside the West Wing, prosecutors cited several cases in which the Patriot Act had played a crucial role, from staging an undercover sting on California weapons dealers attempting to sell Stinger missiles to securing convictions of major terrorist financiers in New York.
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