Dear Mr. Barnes:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the Patriot Act. I appreciate hearing from you and appreciate the opportunity to respond to you.
The attacks of September 11, 2001, represented an unprovoked and unprecedented act of war against the United States. We have an obligation to do everything in our power to protect our nation and ensure that terrorists are stopped before their acts are successful. At the same time it is important that any efforts to protect our country from future terrorist attacks do not infringe upon the civil liberties that are at the core of the U.S. Constitution. It was appropriate that Congress took steps to enhance the ability of federal authorities to pursue and capture terrorist suspects by enacting the Patriot Act. I support a permanent extension of the Patriot Act because I believe the law has been effective in protecting our country and saving American lives, including in the case of the arrest and conviction of two Atlanta men who were plotting a terror attack in 2006 and the arrest and subsequent guilty plea of Najibullah Zazi who was plotting a terror attack on New York in 2009. I also recently traveled to Munich, Germany, where I met with leading defense ministers from several countries to discuss our vulnerability to all forms of terrorism, including cyber terrorism. I believe that the Patriot Act provides the United States the 21st Century communications tools that are essential to preventing terror attacks.
On May 26, 2011, the Senate took up legislation that extended three key provisions of the Patriot Act relating to law enforcement's ability to conduct court-approved "roving" wiretaps of terror suspects as they change phones or locations, allowing law enforcement access to library records and other items considered relevant to a terror investigation with court approval, and the surveillance of suspected "lone wolf" terrorists not linked to a specific terrorist organization. It made no substantive changes or additions to current law, and before these provisions can be used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court must authorize their use. Any records sought by the government using this authority must be relevant to an authorized national security investigation and the Court must first approve the government's request to obtain the records. The records sought are often similar to those that can be obtained using a simple grand jury subpoena in a criminal investigation. These three provisions are designed to give the intelligence community flexibility, and similar capabilities for tracking terrorists that law enforcement currently has to capture ordinary criminals, and not one of the three provisions expands the definition of a "domestic terrorist" or targets law abiding citizens or their Second Amendment rights. In fact, the provision on "lone wolf" suspects only applies to non-U.S. persons who are engaged in international terrorism activities. As you may also know, during debate on this legislation Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) offered two amendments relating to banking and gun records. I opposed these amendments because I believed they would have the unintended consequences of weakening the Patriot Act and thereby diminish its effectiveness in helping law enforcement protect our country.
I voted in favor of extending these provisions that I believe are a critical and proven tool for law enforcement to track terrorists and to keep our nation safe from terrorist attacks. This legislation passed the Senate by a vote of 72–23 and it was signed into law by the President.
Thank you again for contacting me. Please visit my webpage at http://isakson.senate.gov/ for more information on the issues important to you and to sign up for my e-newsletter.
Sincerely,
Johnny Isakson
United States Senator
For future correspondence with my office, please visit my web site at http://isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm. You can also click here to sign up for the eNewsletter
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