alienation news

ACLU chief assails Patriot Act spin

Coming on the heels of Attorney General John Ashcroft's summer tour to promote the Patriot Act, President Bush is pushing to expand government powers with Patriot Act II. But experts say the government's assertions about what the first Patriot covers constitute outright deception of the public.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, speaking Friday at a conference on information technology and homeland security at the University of California at Berkeley, said the government has 'repeatedly made false statements about the Patriot Act, presumably to deceive listeners into thinking the act gives the government less unilateral power than it actually does.'