Here is the response that I received from Senator Bill Nelson, D-FL:
Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts on the Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act was enacted in 2001 following the attacks of September 11, as increased emphasis was placed on counterterrorism and counterintelligence. Several of the provisions of the Act dealing with law enforcement wiretaps and access to library, medical, or financial records are set to expire on December 31, 2005. Other sections, including those dealing with sneak-and-peek searches, will not sunset.
I strongly believe that while we must remain vigilant in our fight against terrorism by equipping law enforcement officials with the necessary tools, we must also safeguard our precious civil liberties.
As I closely examine the Patriot Act, I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind.
Senator Feinstein-D, CA, sounds like she's having second thoughts about not supporting the Patriot Act. From The Rush Limbaugh program today:
Rush says: ...one more Feinstein sound bite from MSNBC last night, from Andrea Mitchell, guest hosting for Chris Matthews and they're talking about the Patriot Act, and Andrea Mitchell says, but won't it expire now with the House having gone home for the holidays? Won't it expire? The Patriot Act will not exist as a result of this debate?
Senator Feinstein: The House said they would come into session on Thursday if necessary, and certainly the leadership can come and if there is an agreement and the leadership of the House is willing to go along with it, that will settle that. The point is there's ample time to settle this. Now, there are probably some members of my party that don't want to see a Patriot Act, I am not one of them. And if I at any point in this feel that there's a disingenuous streak and that people are trying to kill the Patriot Act, I will not be part of that.
Rush: Well let's go back to her leader, Senator Dingy Harry, this is last Friday after the Senate voted down the Patriot Act, Senator Reid went over to party with a bunch of Democrats and said this:
Reid: Think of what happened 20 minutes ago in the United States Senate, we killed the Patriot Act (applause).
Rush (applauding): Yeah, Senate Democrats applaud killing the Patriot Act. So what we have, prior to 9-11, these same people whining and moaning about not connecting the dots, now the President trying to connect the dots, surveilling Al Qaeda types, not domestic spying on American citizens, suspected Al Qaeda types, and now the President's trying to connect the dots and they want to impeach him...
I agree with Rush. If I'm blown to bits by a terrorist bomb I can't really worry about my precious civil liberties can I? Priorities Democrats, priorities.
UPDATE: Polipundit has the money quote from the 9-11 Commission Report:
Democrats must be made to pay a high price for their opposition to the PATRIOT Act. Here’s an example from the 9/11 Commission Report that illustrates why the Act is vitally important:
According to the unanimous bipartisan report of that Commission, the “wall” thwarted the investigation of Khalid al-Midhdar and Nawaf alHazmi, two of the hijackers who flew an airplane into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. In June 2001, FBI agents investigating the U.S.S. Cole bombing met with the CIA. Even though the CIA knew that al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were connected to the Cole bombing and had been in the United States, the CIA refused to give the FBI this information because of the “wall.” Even after the FBI learned from the CIA of al-Mihdhar’s and al-Hazmi’s presence in the United States and the FBI launched an effort to try to locate them, FBI Headquarters refused to allow criminal investigators in New York to participate. A New York FBI agent working on the case expressed his frustration with these restrictions in the following e-mail: “Whatever has happened to this - someday someone will die - and wall or not - the public will not understand why we were not more effective and throwing every resource we had at certain ‘problems.’”
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