After 9/11, a swift and powerful change in the law of the land
After 9/11, a swift and powerful change in the law of the land
It is quite amazing how quick the patriot act was ready to propose given its length and the amazing acronym.
It was half past noon on Sept. 19, 2001, when a small phalanx of administration officials strode down a second-floor hallway in the Capitol building, headed for a secret meeting in a room nearly hidden behind a bank of elevators. Inside, they faced a group of the nation's most powerful lawmakers.
Carrying a 40-page document labeled "The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001," the officials had come to make a case for providing federal investigators with new tools to fight terrorism on American soil. They were led by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who wasted little time getting to the point.
Accept this bill in its entirety, he demanded, and pass it within a week.
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Dick Armey, a hard-boiled Texas conservative who at the time was the GOP majority leader in the House, remembers being unimpressed by arguments from the Justice Department's "Harvard- trained lawyers" -- and he told them so."Like this stuff is new?" one of the lawyers replied. "We've been asking for it for a long time."
"I know you have," Armey shot back, "and we've been saying 'no' for some time."
thanks to 911citizenswatch.org for the heads up!
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