Jansen statement “Senate must push for real Patriot Act sunsets”
Senate must push for real Patriot Act sunsets
December 13, 2005 - 12:46pm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DECEMBER 13, 2005
CONTACT: Jesse R. Benton 202-246-6363 (mobile)
Senate must push for real Patriot Act sunsets
Amendments to Bill a positive step, but further improvement needed to protect privacy
WASHINGTON, DC - The Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights (CFPHR), a non-governmental advocacy and research organization founded to defend privacy, civil liberties and market economics, today called on the United States Senate remove two of the most contentious sections of the USA PATRIOT Act from the final conference report. The provisions, according to CFPHR, are a major extension of government surveillance power over Americans citizens and raise serious concerns about privacy and ethical standards that govern the way federal agents must operate and obtain access to information.
CFPHR Executive Director J. Bradley Jansen issued the following statement:
“All of us want law enforcement to get all of the information it needs to convict terrorists. Unfortunately, many new provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act will do more harm than good. We must all ask ourselves, under what standards should government agents gain access to private, personal information about un-indicted Americans? The gross collections of data included in the new ‘improved’ PATRIOT Act allow the government to collect massive amounts of data on innocent Americans going about their law-abiding business and only create a larger haystack of data for law enforcement officials searching for the potential terrorist needling them. Clear rules with higher standards would simultaneously give law enforcement agents faster approval to conduct lawful searches, curtail abuses against innocent Americans and therefore make the country safer.
“The new sections 215 and 505 of the USA PATRIOT Act should be removed from the conference report to protect ethics, privacy and the security of out Nation.”
For more information on The Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights or the Patriot Act, please visit www.financialprivacy.org.
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To arrange an interview with Mr. Jansen, please contact Jesse Benton at 202-246-6363. For more information on The Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, please visit www.financialprivacy.org.