Letters from NYC

Patriot & Terrorist Games

Today's Terror Headlines:

- A man was shot today in a London subway station who was believed to be a terrorist

- The same Al Qaeda related organization who claimed responsibility for London's bombing on the 7th claimed responsibility for yesterday's bombing.

- 14 of the 16 provisions in the Patriot Act were indefinitely extended. The two remaining articles- giving the government the power to demand business and library records and to conduct roving wiretaps - were extended only 10 years. The Senate is working on their own version.

- NYC transit system, the largest system in America transporting 6 million riders daily, began bag inspections on their system yesterday evening.

The city is under heavy criticism from the ACLU & NYCLU and threatening an injunction to stop the searches. However, their first day of inspections netted an arrest of a man acting suspiciously who possessed a cache of weapons.

The House version of the Patriot Act essentially leaves intact many of the antiterrorism powers that critics sought to scale back. This now sets the stage for some difficult negotiations with the Senate, which is considering several very different bills to extend the government's counterterrorism powers under the act.

Of course, Hillary was unusually quiet during yesterday's Patriot discussion and last week's Senate vote which increased the surveillance component of the act. Carolyn Miller, on the other hand, was one of the more eloquent proponents of passing indefinitely all the provisions of the House version of the Patriot Act. I wish she were a Representative here in NY instead of Michigan!

Posted by Michele at July 22, 2005 07:49 AM | TrackBack