paragraphs are being slipped into spending bills.
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript242_full.htmlBRANCACCIO: There have been new developments in another issue facing the country: how the war on terror touches our personal lives.
Just six weeks after 9/11, the White House pushed through the USA PATRIOT Act, greatly expanding the ability of government to conduct wiretaps and surveillance on Americans.
Then last February, NOW reported on a Justice Department plan dubbed PATRIOT Act II that would give law enforcement even greater powers.
Opposition was swift. Some 200 local governments adopted resolutions opposing it, and the legislation was never introduced in Congress. But the story doesn't end there.
In September, at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, President Bush pushed again for more tools to fight terrorists, saying the first PATRIOT Act is just not strong enough.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Under current federal law, there are unreasonable obstacles to investigating and prosecuting terrorism, obstacles that don't exist when law enforcement officials are going after embezzlers or drug traffickers.
For the sake of the American people, Congress should change the law and give law enforcement officials the same tools they have to fight terror that they have to fight other crime.
BRANCACCIO: So now the White House has come up with a new legislative tactic. PATRIOT Act II has been broken into small bites, which are appearing as attachments to other appropriation bills.
Here's how it works. Buried deep inside the 77-page Senate Intelligence Authorization bill, parts of which are classified, comes a one paragraph provision titled — listen carefully; it's not fine print, it's the title: MODIFICATION TO DEFINITION OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IN THE RIGHT TO FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT.
Many lawmakers, when they voted to pass the measure this summer, didn't realize the tiny provision would significantly expand government powers.
We talked to the American Civil Liberties Union and they told us the legislation allows the FBI to secretly sift through our financial transactions with car dealers, travel agencies, post offices, casinos, pawnbrokers, as well as securities dealers and currency exchanges, all without a judge's approval.
Bob Barr joins us now to sort through the latest on this issue. He's a former Republican Congressman from Georgia, dubbed "Mr. Privacy" by the columnist William Safire.
Mr. Barr is a contributing editor for the AMERICAN SPECTATOR and sits on the board of the National Rifle Association.
Bob Barr, welcome to NOW.
BARR: Always a pleasure and an honor. Thanks for having me.
BRANCACCIO: Give me a sense of this. Are these theoretical privacy concerns? Or are these things that you me, my grandmother have to worry about right now?
BARR: None of these concerns that I and many others across the country have expressed are theoretical. These are very real concerns. And we're seeing people, I know personally from people coming to me either as an attorney or as an activist on privacy issues with very real stories about very real adverse effects that have befallen them.
Bank accounts that had been closed out with no reason. And the PATRIOT Act cited as the reason. Now, these are powers that are affecting real people, real citizens, law-abiding citizens every day. And we all ought to be concerned about the extent to which our privacy is being invaded.
BRANCACCIO: What do you think about this apparent strategy to insert a little paragraph here into a new law? Or maybe a little paragraph there instead of trying to push for a whole new PATRIOT Act II?
BARR: I always hate to tell people I told them so. But I've been warning for months now that in the wake of the adverse reaction to the initial draft of what I call the Son of PATRIOT Act early this year, the government would probably switch tactics to start trying to insert separate specific provisions of it into other bills. And that's particularly dangerous during the final few months of any Congressional session when all of the spending bills come up.
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