But I thought the PATRIOT Act was for terra
The ACLU draws attention to the increase in wiretaps in Tennessee as a result of the PATRIOT Act:
Federal authorities spent more than $1 million on 13 wiretaps in Tennessee during 2003. All were used for mobile phone surveillance in narcotics investigations, and they resulted in 56 narcotics-related arrests.
Hedy Weinberg, who represents the ACLU in Tennessee, said that none of the wiretaps requested in the state were turned down.
The state’s increase follows a national trend; across the country, wiretap requests increased 19% in 2003 from the previous year.
I’m shocked to learn that a wiretap costs $76,923.08. But these taps are for narcotics operations and not the war on terra, which is what I thought the PATRIOT Act was to be used to combat.
June 1st, 2004 at 11:44 am
What does this have to do with the PATRIOT Act? Anything?
June 1st, 2004 at 11:47 am
From the linked article:
June 1st, 2004 at 4:18 pm
I don’t know how I missed that line on the first read, but regardless, I take anything the ACLU says with a big grain of salt. Particularly when it involves a vague reference to the Patriot Act, which seems to be one of their favorite sleaze tactics of late. Someone with a lot more time on his hands than I should run through all 13 of the Tennessee wiretap cases to determine how many of them, if any, would have been illegal under pre-PATRIOT law. My guess is that that number falls somewhere between 0 and 2.
June 1st, 2004 at 4:23 pm
Unless it’s 0, i’d still have a problem with it.
June 1st, 2004 at 8:32 pm
But these taps are for narcotics operations and not the war on terra, which is what I thought the PATRIOT Act was to be used to combat.
They are one-in-the-same…didn’t you get the memo?
June 2nd, 2004 at 3:24 pm
I agree with Xrlq. If the ACLU could point to a specific section of the Patriot act that authorized the wiretaps, the media would be all over it like a pack of dogs on a three-legged cat. Instead all you have is a vague statement about the ACLU being concerned about the PA – no big suprise there. Also, the news story didn’t mention what percentage of requests were denied in previous years. Again, if there was a disparity, the media would be all over it.