Congress Queries DOJ on PATRIOT Act

(Forwarded from ALA Washington Office Newsline)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [ALA-WO:818] Another Request from Congress on USA PATRIOT Act
Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 16:24:19 -0400
From: "ALAWASH E-MAIL" <[email protected]>
To: ALA Washington Office Newsline <[email protected]>

ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 12, Number 38
May 5, 2003

In This Issue:  Another request from Congress for Information on Use of USA
PATRIOT Act

On April 1, 2003, the House Judiciary Committee requested extensive
information from the Justice Department regarding the Department's
implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act anti-terrorism law and the Attorney
General's Investigative Guidelines. 

The request was made in an eighteen-page letter to Attorney General John
Ashcroft by House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.
(R-Wis.) and Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.).

The letter states, "As the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House
Committee on the Judiciary, it is our responsibility to conduct oversight of
the Department of Justice's efforts to combat terrorism, which includes
implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act ('Act') signed into law by President
Bush on October 26, 2001. In response to our letter of June 13, 2002, you
provided us with information regarding the use of these new tools, which
helped us to understand the complexity and extensive scope of the effort to
implement the law. ... This letter seeks information regarding the use of
preexisting authorities and the new authorities conferred by the Act."

The letter includes questions as to whether the government makes an
"explicit certification that an investigation of a United States person is
not being conducted solely on the basis of activities protected by the First
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States" and whether the FISA
court makes an explicit finding of that exclusion. 

The letter also asks questions about data mining, and about the FBI's
lifting of a requirement that the FBI ensure the accuracy and timeliness of
information of criminals and crime victims before adding such information to
the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.

The full text of the letter is available at
http://www.house.gov/judiciary/patriot040103.htm.

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