Yet Another Example of Why The Patriot Act Is Bad (Pt. 2)

A followup to revelations from earlier this month about the FBI abusing the Patriot Act.

From the AP-

The FBI engaged in widespread and serious misuse of its authority in illegally gathering telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners while hunting terrorists, the Justice Department's chief inspector said Tuesday.

The FBI's failure to establish sufficient controls or oversight for collecting the information through so-called national security letters constituted "serious and unacceptable" failures, said Glenn A. Fine, the internal watchdog who revealed the data-gathering abuses in a 130-page report last week...

...In 2001, the Patriot Act eliminated any requirement that the records belong to someone under suspicion. Now an innocent person's records can be obtained if FBI field agents consider them merely relevant to an ongoing terrorism or spying investigation.

Fine's review, authorized by Congress over Bush administration objections, concluded the number of national security letters requested by the FBI skyrocketed after the Patriot Act became law..

Fine said the violations were unintentional, but that conclusion has been disputed by critics of the Patriot Act...

I don't know why people are so shocked that this law was abused or that proper 'safeguards' were not put in place to prevent said abuse. After all, we are dealing with an administration has regularly made clear they do not believe the constitutional system of checks and balances applies to them (for example, when signing the Patriot Act's renewal last year, the President added a signing statement saying he didn't believe he was bound by oversight requirements of it). Also, you may insert the GOP talking point about not having civil liberties if you're dead here.

So be angry, but please don't feign surprise, Mr. Republican.

However, hope on the horizon? A small, but prominent, group of conservatives are set to launch a campaign "to restore checks and balances and civil liberties protections under assault by the Executive Branch," arguing that, "since 9/11, the President has acquired too much power." As always, a start.