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Exactly 45 days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC, then President George W Bush signed into law the USA PATRIOT Act, giving vast new power and discretion to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to spy on and incarcerate Americans and others, to detain and deport immigrants, to monitor financial transactions, and to greatly expand the very definition of terrorism. Both houses of Congress and both major parties enthusiastically supported the bill with wide margins, even as civil libertarians were sounding the warning bells of government overreach. Using the specter of the 9/11 attacks as justification, thousands of Americans and immigrants were subjected to wiretapping, government letters, indefinite detention and deportation over the years that immediately followed. In response to a ground-swell of grassroots opposition to the PATRIOT Act, dozens of city councils around the country passed resolutions condemning it and refusing to comply with parts of it. Still, after provisions of the Act expired in 2004, Congress reauthorized it, keeping intact many of the draconian measures. Now, several provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are once more set to expire this December. The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations most vocally critical of the Act, is urging Congress to comprehensively reform it, and bring it in line with the Constitution.

GUEST: Michael Macleod-Bell, Acting Director of Washington legislative office at the ACLU

For more information, visit www.aclu.org.