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The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 11 to 4 in a closed door session to approve an expansion of the USA PATRIOT Act. The new measure would make permanent eight provisions of the Act, which is set to expire at the end of this year. It would also increase government surveillance powers by granting investigators access to an individual’s business records and allowing wiretaps and searches without proving a link to terrorism or a federal judge’s permission.
Guest – David Cole, professor at Georgetown Law School and author of “Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedom in the War on Terrorism.” He has an article in The Nation magazine last month titled “The Missing Patriot Debate.”
Guest – Chip Pitts – International Attorney and chair of the US Amnesty International Board. Pitts was also at the Patriot Act Reauthorization hearing.
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Cuba’s Anti-Terrorist Conference
Hundreds gathered for an anti-terrorism conference in Cuba, but not to talk about al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. The Latin American personalities attending the event instead focused on the US government.
Guest – Michael Avery – President of the National Lawyers Guild and Law Professor at Suffolk University. He attended Cuba’s Anti -Terrorist Conference held earlier this month.
Guest – Jim Cockcroft – A three time Fulbright Scholar; former Ford Fellow and Peace Corps consultant; 1988 University of California Regents Lecturer; frequent guest professor/researcher in the Americas and Europe and public lecturer; participating editor of Latin American Perspectives; and State University of New York Internet Curriculum Designer and Professor.
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Supreme Court Ruling on Medical Marijuana
Guest – Pamela Lichty is the Vice President and Co-Founder of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, a non-profit organization established in 1993 to encourage discussion and promote public education about current and alternative drug policies and related issues.
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Special Registration – Americans Deported
After September 11th, the government required required men in the United States from 24 Muslim majority countries and North Korea to be fingerprinted, photographed and questioned at immigration centers. Roughly 13,000 of the men who stepped forward were placed into deportation proceedings after immigration officers discovered that they were living here without legal status. Among them are men like Kamal, Hassan and Housseine Essaheb, three brothers from Queens who fit only the profile of classic immigrant success, minus the proper paperwork.
Guest – Julie Dinnerstein, immigration lawyer with Sanctuary for Families
Guest – Kamal Essaheb, law student at Fordham University who came to the United States from Morocco 13 years ago.
Commentary – Close Guanatamo – Michael Ratner