Terror war takes hit on home front

Lawmakers who mounted a successful filibuster of the reauthorization of the Patriot Act said the measure, enacted after the 9/11 attacks to help combat terrorism, must be revised to better protect civil liberties.

“Our goal is to mend the Patriot Act, not to end it,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Lawmakers who wanted to renew the Patriot Act fell seven votes short of the 60 necessary to cut off debate, with five Republicans joining 41 Democrats and one independent blocking passage of the legislation…

Texas’ Republican senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, voted to end the debate.

Cornyn said the Senate’s decision on the Patriot Act “will weaken our country by reverting to Sept. 10th tools for our law enforcement agencies.”

“We cannot complain about failures to connect the dots, and then vote to take away the tools necessary to connect them,” he said.

The Patriot Act will expire at the end of this year if no action is taken, although current investigations will not be affected.

The Senate debate was inflamed by a report in Friday’s New York Times that Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to monitor, without court warrants, international phone calls and e-mail messages of people inside the United States believed in contact with terrorist groups such as al-Qaida. A senior intelligence official told the Associated Press on Friday that President Bush authorized the secretive eavesdropping more than three dozen times since October 2001.

More judicial review

Some Senate Democrats cited the Times report to underscore their belief that the administration’s law enforcement actions needed more judicial review.

“This administration feels it is above the law,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.”This is big brother, run amok.”

Critics objected to provisions in the Patriot Act that allow authorities to use roving wiretaps and obtain information from institutions such as libraries and hospitals.

Another provision that has caused concern would let the government wait up to 30 days after executing a search warrant before notifying the target of the search.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee who has been trying to shepherd the Patriot Act through the Senate, conceded that the timing of the New York Times report “was very, very problematic if not devastating” to efforts to renew the law.

While Specter defended the Patriot Act and said critics were wrong to claim that it did not provide enough judicial review, he criticized government eavesdropping on Americans without a warrant.

“There is no doubt this is inappropriate,” he said. Specter said his committee will hold high-priority hearings on the matter early next year.

Responding to the New York Times article, Bush said that “we do not discuss ongoing intelligence operations to protect the country. And the reason why is that there’s an enemy that lurks, that would like to know exactly what we’re trying to do to stop them.”

“I will make this point,” Bush said on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. “That whatever I do to protect the American people and I have an obligation to do so that we will uphold the law, and decisions made are made understanding we have an obligation to protect the civil liberties of the American people.”

The setbacks to Bush’s anti-terrorism program came in the same week the president was forced to reverse course and accept a ban on torture of foreign prisoners that had been sought by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and had strong bipartisan support in the Congress.

Lawmakers seeking changes to the Patriot Act said they want a three-month extension to work out their differences a move that was rejected by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

“Advance or retreat, it is simple as that,” said Frist. “A vote against the Patriot Act amounts to a retreat against terrorism here at home.” Frist changed his vote to support the filibuster, which gives him the right to bring up the legislation at a later date.

Chance of compromise?

Specter also said that reopening negotiations is not likely to make any difference because he did not believe the House, which approved the Patriot Act earlier this week, would be amenable to further compromise.

But Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., one of four Republicans to vote against cutting off debate, said the GOP leadership needs to revise the legislation to win over critical votes.

The Patriot Act was one of a number of issues that were expected to keep lawmakers in session over the weekend.

Representatives of the Senate and the House continued to negotiate a package of proposed budget cuts and a contentious provision to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling.

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