Surveillance

Leahy Intros Patriot Act Bill With Some Restrictions; ACLU Says Not Enough

Rachel Slajda | January 27, 2011, 12:17PM

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Following on the heels of a House Republican's alteration-free one-year extension of the expiring Patriot Act provisions, Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has introduced his own extension that would add some restrictions to the so-called library provision.

That's great, says the ACLU. But it's not enough.

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Civil liberties

Patriot Act's Wiretapping, FISA Provisions Quietly Come Up For Renewal

Rachel Slajda | January 25, 2011, 8:48AM

From a Patriot Act protest in 2005.

At the end of next month, two of the Patriot Act's controversial provisions -- one authorizing "roving" wiretapping and one allowing the government to pull all sorts of records and electronic communications from U.S. citizens -- will expire.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has already introduced legislation that would simply extend the provisions for one more year.

That would essentially be a repeat of what happened a year ago, after the provisions expired in December 2009. There was a bit of a fight from civil liberties advocates, but the measures were renewed for another year at the end of last February.

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Drones

Utah Mayor Hopes To Use Unmanned Blimp To Fight Crime

Eric Lach | January 19, 2011, 12:23PM

Matthew Godfrey, the mayor of Ogden, Utah, has a lofty goal. Godfrey has proposed that the town employ an unmanned blimp for surveillance and crime prevention.

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