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Ebay Inc Gets Letter From US Attorney Of Missouri Monday March 31 Dow Jones Business News WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- EBay Inc. said Monday that the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri claims the company's PayPal operation violated part of the USA Patriot Act, according to its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (News - Websites). The auction service operator said a letter received Friday from the attorney's office claims PayPal violated a part of the law that prohibits transmission of funds known to have been derived from a criminal offense or intended to be used to promote or support unlawful activity. As a result, PayPal might have to forfeit the amounts it received in connection with such activities, and it also might be subject to criminal liability, the filing said. EBay, San Jose, said the attorney's office offered a complete settlement of all possible claims and charges covering a purported amount of earnings PayPal derived from online gambling merchants between Oct. 26, 2001, and July 31, 2002, plus interest. EBay said PayPal acted in good faith and believes that it didn't violate the USA Patriot Act. The company said PayPal calculated that the amount of its earnings from online gaming activities was less than what was asserted in the letter. The filing didn't provide information on the amount of earnings claimed in the letter. LINK
Hawaii May Become First State to Publicly Oppose Patriot Act Kavan Peterson - Stateline.org - Apr 03, 2003 -- HONOLULU -- Hawaii's Legislature is debating a nonbinding resolution that condemns sweeping new federal powers to fight terrorism and urges state and local officials to avoid any actions that threaten the civil rights of the state's ethnically diverse residents. The resolution has passed the state House. If the state Senate passes it, which sponsors say is likely, Hawaii will become the first state to go on record against provisions of the 2001 USA Patriot Act and the 2002 Homeland Security Act. Both statutes expand federal powers to spy on U.S. citizens and curb traditional court oversight of such activities. Language in the Hawaii measure indirectly refers to the internment of Japanese-American citizens after Pearl Harbor. "The residents of Hawaii during World War II experienced firsthand the dangers of unbalanced pursuit of security without appropriate checks and balances," it states. "While federal laws such as the USA Patriot Act ... are aimed at saving our human rights, civil liberties, and constitutional protections, they run the serious risk of destroying the very freedoms that they purport to protect through invasive surveillance, secret searches and so forth," said Hawaii Rep. Ken Ito, a Democrat and author of the House version of the resolution, which passed by large majority in the Democratically-controlled House last week. The state Senate, which also has a lopsided Democratic majority, is expected to bring the measure to a vote this week. Because the resolution merely expresses the sense of the legislature, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, cannot sign or veto it. Some of Lingle's fellow Republicans charge that the resolution is politically motivated. "This is a partisan effort designed to go after the U.S. Attorney General, the president and his administration," said Senate minority leader Fred Hemmings. "It's wholly consistent with the very liberal and extremely partisan elements of the Hawaii state Legislature who seem more concerned with making partisan problems than making bipartisan solutions.". The USA Patriot Act, short for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism," sped through Congress and was signed into law by President George W. Bush less than two months after the 9/11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The act was passed with bipartisan support but with very little debate. Supporters said the legislation was needed to close loopholes that could allow terrorists to operate with impunity. The Homeland Security Act consolidates a number of existing federal agencies in a new U.S. Cabinet department responsible for protecting U.S. borders, harbors, coastal waters and territory. Resolutions similar to the one pending in Hawaii were introduced in the New Mexico and Vermont legislatures this year, but neither of them went anywhere. A grassroots push has resulted in passage of resolutions critical of the federal anti-terrorism statutes in 75 cities in the past year. The drive started in liberal strongholds such as Berkeley, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Santa Fe, N.M. and Amherst, Mass., but spread to more conservative communities like Fairbanks, Alaska and Tampa, Fla. Most communities acted with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a grassroots group in Florence, Mass. The movement has seen a recent groundswell of support, said Damon Moglen of the ACLU. "I think it speaks to the genuine frustration, fear, anger and anxiety about these federal actions at the local level," Moglen said. The community-passed resolutions cannot compel local authorities to ignore some of the provisions of the new federal anti-terrorism laws, but merely affirm civil rights that some critics say are being trampled in the rush to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks. Hawaii's resolution, which also lacks teeth, urges state law enforcement officials not to engage in any activities that "threaten the human rights, civil liberties and constitutional protections of people residing in the state of Hawaii." The resolution passed by the Hawaii House asks the state's Congressional delegation to "actively work for the repeal" of the USA Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act, and it asks the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to report to the legislature all actions under those laws in Hawaii. It also asks authorities to disclose the names and locations of any detainees held in the state or any state resident detained elsewhere as an "enemy combatant." The resolution before the state Senate is a watered down version of what the House approved. http://www.govtech.net/news/news.phtml?docid=2003.04.03-45635
surprise, surprise... ==== Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent WASHINGTON, April 8 â Working with the Bush administration, Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said today. The move is likely to touch off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans. The landmark legislation expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects. When it passed in October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005 unless Congress re-authorizes them. But Republicans in the Senate in recent days have discussed a proposal, written by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, that would repeal the sunset provisions and make the law's new powers permanent, officials said. Republicans may seek to move on the proposal this week by trying to attaching it to another antiterrorism bill that would make it easier for the government to use secret surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" terrorism suspects. Many Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated by what they see as a lack of information from the Justice Department on how its agents are using their newfound powers, and they say they need more time to determine whether agents are abusing those powers. The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said today that without extensive review, he "would be very strongly opposed to any repeal" of the 2005 time limit. He predicted that Republicans lacked the votes to repeal the limits. Indeed, Congressional officials and political observers said the debate might force lawmakers to take stock of how far they were willing to sacrifice civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. Beryl Howell, a former Democratic aide in the Senate who worked extensively on the 2001 legislation, said that by forcing the issue, Mr. Hatch "is throwing down the gauntlet to people who think the U.S.A. Patriot Act went too far and who want to cut back its powers." Justice Department officials in interviews today credited the Patriot Act with allowing the F.B.I. to move with greater speed and flexibility to disrupt terrorist operations before they occur, and they say they wanted to see the 2005 time limit on the legislation lifted. "The Patriot Act has been an extremely useful tool, a demonstrated success, and we don't want that to expire on us," a senior department official said on condition of anonymity. ... Aides to Senator Hatch would not discuss his views on repealing the time limits in the law. con'd
hey Madison, ITS ALL HYPE. There has not been one case of an american citizen being abused because of the patriot act. Its all just hype, something for extremists to focus on because they can't stand the sight of the victory in Iraq. Its all a part of DENIAL. Denial that there are very few places on earth that even compare with the U.S. in either freedom or standard of living.
White House seeks to expand DNA database By Richard Willing, USA TODAY Posted 4/15/2003 WASHINGTON â DNA profiles from juvenile offenders and from adults who have been arrested but not convicted would be added to the FBI's national DNA database under a Bush administration proposal. Under current law, only DNA from adults convicted of crimes can be placed in the national database, which is used to compare those samples with biological evidence from the scenes of unsolved crimes. As of January, there were about 1.3 million DNA samples in the database, U.S. officials say. Adding profiles from thousands of adult arrestees and juvenile offenders would greatly expand the DNA system's worth by increasing the number of potential matches, administration officials say. Justice Department officials have discussed potential changes in federal DNA law with key members of Congress and are pushing for legislation this year. "DNA is to the 21st century what fingerprinting was to the 20th," says Deborah Daniels, assistant U.S. attorney general for justice programs. "The widespread use of DNA evidence is the future of law enforcement in this country." ... The White House is pushing to make DNA a more effective law enforcement tool. Last month, it announced a plan to spend about $1 billion over five years to improve the national database. LINK
No way man, it'll never be a problem. Take the DMV, a perfectly run government system - you gotta problem, yo they'll solve it.
Pff it's already the case since the banks has already your credit card records. And who cares about what government knows about your grade, your trip etc since this has nothing to be unhonest ? What one should care really about this article doesn't so it's a kind of article that in appearance care about privacy but discuss only false problems so that people don't see the real problems.