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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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PREMIUM NEWS ARCHIVE

A failure to balance.(Editorials)(Congress gives the executive branch new spy power)(Editorial)

Article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) Article date: July 11, 2008

Byline: The Register-Guard

Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a frightened Congress fundamentally shifted the balance between national security and civil liberties by approving the USA Patriot Act.

The Bush administration failed to fulfill its pledge to carefully use its dramatically expanded law enforcement powers and to allow close monitoring. Congress failed to learn from that mistake; five years later, it approved a largely unreformed extension of the Patriot Act that will erode American civil ...

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