Bush urges Senate, House to renew Patriot Act

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-12-10-bush-urges-congress_x.htm

Bush urges Senate, House to renew Patriot Act

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush is urging Congress to reach agreement on reauthorizing the Patriot Act — a law that he says is essential to fighting terrorism, but liberal and conservative critics say is a threat to individual liberties.

"The valuable protections of the Patriot Act will expire at the end of this month if Congress fails to act, but the terrorist threats will not expire on that schedule," Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address. "In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without this vital law for a single moment."

The Patriot Act tore down legal and bureaucratic barriers that kept law enforcement and intelligence authorities from sharing information about terrorist threats, he said. Authorities have used the law to prosecute terrorist operatives and supporters or break up terror cells in New York, Oregon, Virginia, California, Texas, and Ohio, the president said.

"Before the Patriot Act, it was easier to track the phone calls of a drug dealer than the phone calls of a terrorist," Bush said. "Before the Patriot Act, it was easier to get the credit card receipts of a tax cheat than those of an al-Qaeda bankroller. The Patriot Act ended these double standards."