Story Transcript
GEORGE W. BUSH: Today, we take an essential step in defeating
terrorism while protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans.
GREG WILPERT: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Greg Wilpert in
Arlington, Virginia.
That was president George W. Bush when he signed the U.S.A Patriot Act
into law in October of 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attack. The U.S.
Congress is
now in the process of passing a renewal of this Patriot Act. Democrats
propose the renewal in a tiny subsection of a stop gap government
funding resolution
so that there would be no government shutdown for at least another
four weeks. The Patriot Act, which civil liberties have condemned for
its wide-scale
warrantless wiretapping provisions, was scheduled to expire on
December 15th of this year. The renewal extends the law for another
three months until March
15th, 2020.
The Patriot Act originally included authorization of indefinite
detentions of immigrants, permission for law enforcement agencies to
search a home or business
without the occupant’s or owner’s consent, and permission for the FBI
and NSA to search telephone, email, and financial records without a
court order.
Since its passage, many of its main provisions have been declared
unconstitutional. However, a key controversial section, number 215
remains in place,
which allows the government to collect phone metadata without court
authorization.
Joining me now to discuss the significance of the Patriot Act renewal
is Evan Greer. She’s deputy director of the organization Fight for Our
Future. Thanks
for joining us today.
EVAN GREER: Thanks for having me.
GREG WILPERT: So the Patriot Act was originally supposed to be in
place for only four years, until 2005, but it has been extended for
another four or five
years almost every time it expired. First, under President George W.
Bush, and then under President Barack Obama. Now, this time it’s being
extended for
another three months. How big a problem, would you say, is this renewal?
EVAN GREER: This is really a huge issue. And it’s really disappointing
that this is the point that we’ve gotten to. These authorities never
should have
been passed in the first place. The Patriot Act was rushed through
Congress with really no consideration for the way that it undermined
basic civil liberties.
This is one of the worst laws ever passed in U.S. history. And it
enables government surveillance at a scale that was previously
impossible.
This three month renewal is really just kicking the can down the road,
but what’s problematic about that is that it really takes the pressure
off of especially
Senate leadership and Mitch McConnell to do anything meaningful to
reform this bill. This is really the Democrats signaling, “Yeah, you
know, we don’t
care that much about this. We’re just going to kick the can down the
road,” instead of standing firm and saying, “Look, if you want to
reauthorize this
legislation you need to fix the gaping loopholes, you need to address
the widespread abuses of this authority that has been used to violate
people’s constitutional
and human rights now for years and years, as you said.
GREG WILPERT: Now, several times, recently, the NSA actually requested
data on a limited number of citizens because the law has become a
little bit narrower
than it was originally set up, but it then ends up receiving hundreds
of millions of records from the phone companies. For example, the NSA
obtained orders
to target 40 suspects in 2018, but it ended up collecting 534 million
records according to an inspector general report, which then also
concluded that
such massive data collection’s actually useless. But still, the Trump
administration and Democrats keep on wanting to renew the law. Why do
you think that
is?
EVAN GREER: It’s really from pressure from the intelligence community.
Once government agencies have any type of power, they always are going
to demand
to keep that power; and in fact, to expand that power. And that’s why
it’s so essential that we hold our elected officials accountable. I
want to underline
something that you said there, which is that this mass data
collection–not only is it invasive, not only does it violate our
rights, it doesn’t even do
what the government says it’s trying to do.
The U.S. government’s mass surveillance programs have never
successfully prevented a violent attack. They’ve never saved anyone’s
life. They’re not keeping
us safe. This type of automated widespread dragnet surveillance isn’t
particularly useful for enhancing public safety, but perfect for
authoritarian control,
for social control, for behavior control. This isn’t about keeping us
safe. It’s about keeping us in line.
GREG WILPERT: Now, what would you recommend to people who are opposed
to this extension of the U.S. government’s ability to engage in
warrantless surveillance?
I mean, what do you recommend that they do in order to stop it?
EVAN GREER: Sure. So, in an immediate way, this bill–the continuing
resolution, this pending bill–is coming up for a vote, literally
potentially as we
speak right now. Everyone should contact their representatives and
tell them to vote against it and to make it clear that they’re voting
against it because
it includes a reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Our position is that
these authorities never should have been granted in the first place.
They shouldn’t
be reauthorized for one more day, much less three more months, and
certainly not beyond that. Everyone needs to recognize that this is an
issue that’s
not going to get solved overnight.
So beyond contacting your representatives today, I strongly recommend
that you get in touch with, follow, become a member of organizations
that are actively
fighting against expanded government surveillance. My organization,
Fight for the Future, is one, Free Press, Demand Progress are out
there doing important
work, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and many others. As well as
Media Justice, Color of Change, Racial Justice and immigration groups
have been opposing
this. So get involved with some of the organizations that are fighting
government surveillance, and overly broad government surveillance,
because this
is a moment where we need to draw a line in the sand. Democratic
leadership are increasingly becoming more and more friendly to
surveillance.
As the Democratic Party really tries to present itself as the party of
national security, which frankly is extremely dangerous, from my
perspective, we’re
seeing an erosion of willingness among Democrats to fight for policies
that protect our basic rights and civil liberties. So we can’t allow
that to happen.
We, as a progressive movement, need to fight to ensure that leadership
in Congress, from both sides of the aisle, fight for meaningful reform
and reign
in these government surveillance programs that are ineffective, a
waste of money, and a huge invasion of our privacy, civil and human
rights.
GREG WILPERT: Okay, well, we’re going to leave it there for now. I was
speaking to Evan Greer, deputy director of the organization Fight for
the Future.
Thanks again, Evan, for having joined us today.
EVAN GREER: Thanks for having me on.
GREG WILPERT: And thank you for joining The Real News Network.
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development campaign manager at The Real News Network. If we’re going
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Related Bios
Evan Greer
Evan Greer
Evan Greer is the deputy director of Fight for the Future. She’s also
a musician, writer, and activist based in Boston.
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