Congress Has Second Thoughts On Patriot Act: "Taking a clear stand against anti-privacy provisions in the Patriot Act, the U.S. House of Representatives in an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort last night agreed to an amendment that would bar federal law enforcement from carrying out secret ”sneak and peek” searches without notifying the target of the warrant.
The Otter Amendment, added to the Commerce, Justice and State Departments funding bill and named after Rep. C.L. ”Butch” Otter, an Idaho Republican, passed by an extraordinary margin of 309 to 118, with 113 Republicans voting in favor.
”Not only does this provision allow the seizure of personal and business records without notification, but it also opens the door to nationwide search warrants and allowing the CIA (news - web sites) (Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites)) and NSA (National Security Agency) to operate domestically,” Otter said. "
- posted by geoff @ #