“After months of vitriolic debate, the tentative agreement represents a significant and somewhat surprising victory for the Bush administration in maintaining the government’s expanded powers to investigate, monitor and track terror suspects,” noted a November 17 New York Times article.

The deal would make permanent 14 provisions of the Patriot Act. Two other measures, including one that would require libraries and bookstores to provide records of the kinds of books obtained by visitors and customers, would be extended for seven years—three years longer than had been proposed in the Senate version.

The House and Senate negotiators also agreed to extend “roving wiretaps” for seven years. Under this measure phones taps could be placed on individuals even though they are not suspects, but on the basis that someone who is suspected of "terrorism" may use their line.

Their agreement also extends for seven years a separate “lone wolf” law that allows government surveillance of a person suspected of terrorism but not connected to any government.

A package of measures in the House version of the bill would add 41 additional offenses to 20 “terrorism-related” felonies that can now result in capital punishment. If passed, the law would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for individuals who contributed financially to an organization deemed “terrorist” by the U.S. government, even if the donation was earmarked for educational or charitable purposes.

The measures would also allow defendants to be tried by less than 12 jurors. The House-Senate deal also extends the federal death penalty “to those who knowingly transport materials used in a deadly terrorist attack, those who help plot a deadly attack on a mass transit system, and those who participate in a deadly attack on ships and maritime facilities,” the Washington Post reported.

In a related matter, records released in October under the Freedom of Information Act show that with expanded surveillance powers under the Patriot Act the FBI has snooped on one person for at least five years without proper paperwork, intercepted e-mails after warrants expired, seized bank records without authority, and carried out an improper “unconsented physical search.”

The Patriot Act was passed with broad bipartisan support after Sept. 11, 2001. It allows police to carry out arbitrary searches and seizures in private homes and businesses, expands police powers to wiretap phones and personal e-mail, allows domestic CIA spying, and authorizes police to jail immigrants without charges as “terrorist suspects,” among other provisions.
 
 
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