A sell-by date implies a justifiable starting date. In fact, parts of the Patriot Act, especially those concerning personal privacy, could never be truly justified from the start.
Gore now challenges Bush to rescind the Intrusive Patriot Act.
"In the USA, many privacy rights were truly crushed by the speedily enacted Patriot Act. The Act, brought about following the tragic events of the 11 September, encompasses wide-ranging powers. According to experts, some of those are way outside the area that the Act was designed to cover. However, I suspect that most of those who had to vote for the Act to be passed, never had time to read more than the executive summary. One has to consider that there were 342 pages and they all had dozens of additional matters to deal with at that point in time." Attributed to Dr. Otto Weizman.
Here is an excellent analysis of the parts that relate to online activities.
Wired News reports that "The law, passed two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, erased many restrictions that had barred the government from spying on its citizens, granting agents new powers to use wiretaps, conduct electronic and computer eavesdropping and access private financial data."
The Act was passed however, and might be here to stay unless Al Gore and other citizens demand the protection of their personal freedom and privacy. The action needs to be swift too, as other governments are no doubt studying it to see whether they can duplicate the Patriot Act's invasion of privacy.
