Wired has an interesting article on more details coming to light about the USA PATRIOT Act. Despite proud crowing that there are a number of sunset clauses in the bill, much of it is in there permanently (until explicitly repealed), and much of the rest has plenty of loopholes in the sunset clauses.
After the president signs the measure on Friday, police will have the permanent ability to conduct Internet surveillance without a court order in some circumstances, secretly search homes and offices without notifying the owner, and share confidential grand jury information with the CIA.
Also exempt from the expiration date are investigations underway by Dec. 2005, and any future investigations of crimes that took place before that date.
The problem, of course, is not with the desire to put the screws to the terrorists. The problem is that the law broadly defines “terrorist” such that it could be applied to virtually any group the government wants to investigate, and therefore gives unprecedented powers to secretly sniff through peoples’ phone records, Internet records, computers, credit reports, and homes.
(Via words mean things)