Statement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy On Justice Departments' Office of the Inspector General Report On Two Key Patriot Act Provisions

Statement of Senator Edward M. Kennedy On Justice Departments' Office of the Inspector General Report On Two Key Patriot Act Provisions

The report documents the FBI's grossly improper use of these sweeping surveillance powers to comb apartment leases, credit reports, telephone records, and credit card records. It's up to Congress to end these abuses as soon as possible. The PATRIOT Act was never intended to allow the Bush Administration to violate fundamental constitutional rights. The new Democratic Congress will make sure that this administration does not run roughshod over the provisions of the law that protect all of us from intrusion.

We all agree that federal law enforcement and intelligence officers should have the tools they need to investigate terrorism and prevent future attacks. They also need authority to share information with state and local law enforcement.

But the American people deserve to know whether such authority is being used properly.

When Congress re-authorized the PATRIOT Act last year, we included a provision to achieve greater transparency in the use of these powers by requiring the Inspector General of the Justice Department to submit reports on the use of two of the Act's most controversial provisions - Section 215, which allows searches for business records, and Section 505, which authorizes National Security Letters used to collect information in national security investigations.

It's now clear from the Inspector General's report that our concerns were well founded.

http://kennedy.senate.gov/newsroom/press_release.cfm?id=18b10909-a9da-4ec3-88f5-9e4b5202b103