Reply #4: the Patriot Act...because the Bill of Rights wasn't right wing enough [View All]

from the article:

"Before the Patriot Act became law, FBI agents needed a subpoena from a grand jury to demand financial records. Under Section 314, agents no longer need trouble themselves with facing a grand jury, which is, after all, made up of only ordinary citizens. Instead, agents need only certify in a secret documentation a reasonable suspicion that money laundering is taking place.

Only after the case comes to trial can a judge rule on whether the agents' certification was adequate. If not, the judge can throw out all the evidence gathered as a result of the bogus certification, according to the Justice Department spokesmen.

Why, one wonders, is the normal subpoena process such a bother all of a sudden? Since when it is so hard to prosecute public corruption in Las Vegas, a possibility that rivals gambling in Casablanca on most people's shock-o-meters?

The Justice Department spokesman said the American people expect law enforcement officers to use any and all constitutional and legal tools to fight all crime, whether it is terror-related or not."

-and if the Constitution is a bother, what with all those protections for all Americans, who, for all John Ashcroft knows, could be potential criminals, well, that's what the Patriot and and the Victory Acts are for.

Victory over what, I wonder? Constitutional Democracy?