Secret Senate committee meeting to expand Pat Act

I blogged on the Senate Intelligence Committee taking up the expansion of the Patriot Act in a closed door session last week. The expansion will greatly enhance the government's ability to spy on Americans with impunity and without judicial review. These provisions - so hastily enacted in the chaos and fear of post 9/11 - were supposed to start expiring at this time. And well they should.

The powers of the Act have not resulted in a single conviction of terrorism but have been widely used to spy on activists who disagree with Bush administration policies and to prosecute ordinary crimes, which already fall under other statutes, in order to enhance the severity of the sentencing.

For those of you who like to see the official documents, Electronic Frontier Foundation has links to the originals and more thoughts on the subject.