Congress on Amending the Patriot Act, Captured Iraqi Documents
With final congressional reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act now imminent, new legislation was introduced in the Senate yesterday to amend the reauthorized Act.
“What this legislation does is reinstate provisions of the original Senate-passed [Patriot Act reauthorization] bill,” said Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA). Those provisions were rejected by the House Republican leadership.
The new bipartisan legislation, jointly sponsored by Senators Specter and Leahy among others, would “require a more reasonable period for delayed-notice search warrants, provide enhanced judicial review of FISA orders and national security letters, require an enhanced factual basis for a FISA order, and create national security letter sunset provisions.”
The legislation does not confront the awkward fact that the Bush Administration appears to believe it does not have to comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
See the introduction of the new bill here.
Another bill, introduced by Rep. Pete Hoekstra, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, would require the Director of National Intelligence to release documents captured in Afghanistan or Iraq.
“The Director of National Intelligence shall make publicly available on an Internet website all captured documents.”
“The term ‘captured document’ means a document captured or collected in Afghanistan or Iraq, including a document collected from the Government of Iraq or from a private person and including a document in electronic form, during Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom,” the legislation states.
Without a robust education system that prepares our youth for future careers in key sectors, our national security and competitiveness are at risk.
The Federation of American Scientists applauds the United States for declassifying the number of nuclear warheads in its military stockpile and the number of retired and dismantled warheads.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) takes its role as a beacon and voice of the scientific community very seriously. We strive for a world that is both more inclusive and informed by science, and are committed to the idea that the path to that world starts by modeling it within our organization.
To understand the range of governmental priorities for the bioeconomy, we spoke with key agencies represented on the National Bioeconomy Board to collect their perspectives.