You may remember some time ago I wrote an article about
“The Patriot Act II“. Well things have changed a bit since then. Ryan Singel has recently published an article on wired.com regarding Congress and their actions to circumvent having to pass the Patriot Act II. They’ve just expanded Powers to the FBI.

“Congress approved a bill on Friday that expands the reach of the Patriot Act, reduces oversight of the FBI and intelligence agencies and, according to critics, shifts the balance of power away from the legislature and the courts…. “
“…A provision of an intelligence spending bill will expand the power of the FBI to subpoena business documents and transactions from a broader range of businesses — everything from libraries to travel agencies to eBay — without first seeking approval from a judge…”

Apparently intelligence spending bills are considered sensitive, so they are usually drafted in secret and approved without debate or public comment, Singel reports.

Justice Department officials tried earlier this year to write a bill to expand the Patriot Act. A draft — dubbed Patriot II — was leaked and caused such an uproar that Justice officials backed down. The new provision inserts one of the most controversial aspects of Patriot II into the spending bill.

For the full story, please click here.

Thanks to Wired.com and Ryan Singel for publishing this information.
Click here to see other articles by Ryan.
Slashdot Also has an Article about this.