Patriot Act
Once passed in 2001, section 505 of the USA PATRIOT Act greatly expanded the use of the NSL, allowing their use in seeking any information relevant to an investigation of terrorism or clandestine intelligence activity. It also granted the privilege to other federal agencies, presumably to allow the department of Homeland Security the same ability to use NSLs. In January 2007 The New York Times reported that both the Pentagon and the CIA have been issuing national security letters. The Patriot Act reauthorization statutes passed during the 109th Congress added specific penalties for non-compliance or disclosure.
Read more about this topic: National Security Letter
Famous quotes containing the words patriot and/or act:
““My country, right or wrong” is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying “My mother, drunk or sober.””
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“It has often been argued that absolute scepticism is self-contradictory; but this is a mistake: and even if it were not so, it would be no argument against the absolute sceptic, inasmuch as he does not admit that no contradictory propositions are true. Indeed, it would be impossible to move such a man, for his scepticism consists in considering every argument and never deciding upon its validity; he would, therefore, act in this way in reference to the arguments brought against him.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)