Much of the attention on Wesley Clark's appearance in Thursday night's Democratic presidential candidates' debate has been focused on his defense of Michael Moore's free speech rights. But not a lot of attention has been paid to his sweeping promise to rescind portions of the PATRIOT Act - including some portions that don't even exist.
Here's what Clark said when asked about the act during the debate:
CLARK: Well, I'm very concerned about the Patriot Act. It was passed in haste. It's very long. It's got dozens and dozens and dozens of changes.
What we would do is suspend all the portions of the Patriot Act that have to do with search and seizure: sneak-and-peek searches; library records; and so on.
If they want to do a wiretap, they can do it the old-fashioned way, go to a judge with probable cause.
And then, bring the whole act back into the Congress. Lay it out. Ask former Attorney General John Ashcroft to come and testify on his use and abuse of the Patriot Act.
(LAUGHTER)
Just lay it out. What provisions were used, for what, for what good? Why couldn't it have been done another way?
And then we're going to put together the right kind of authorities for law enforcement to keep us safe.
But, Tom, we cannot win the war on terror by giving up the very freedoms we're fighting to protect.
A better question, perhaps, would have been if Clark has actually read the PATRIOT Act. There isn't any section of the act that deals with "library records."
But Clark says he would turn back the clock to the days when FBI and CIA agents needed to jump through bureaucratic hoops, seek detailed legal analyses, and convince individual judges on a case-by-case basis before getting warrants to investigate terror threats. Clark would turn back the clock to the days to when, according to the congressional 9/11 report, foreign nationals like Zaccarias Moussaoui - the "20th hijacker" - could stop federal agents from seaching their property and, as terror threats were unfolding, connecting the dots:
As it turned out, according to the indictment, Moussaoui’s possessions included letters indicating that Moussaoui was a marketing consultant in the United States for Infocus Tech.
The letters had been signed by Yazid Sufaat, whom the Intelligence Community was aware was the owner of the Malaysian condominium in which the January 2000 al-Qa’ida meeting attended by hijackers al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi had been held.
The indictment also alleges that Moussaoui possessed a notebook listing two German telephone numbers and the name “Ahad Sabet,” which, the indictment states, was used by Ramzi Bin al-Shibh to send funds to Moussaoui. Bin al-Shibh, who was apprehended in Pakistan in September 2002, is named in the indictment as a supporting conspirator].
Also, Thursday night, Clark said "I consider the statement that the attack at 9/11 could not have been prevented as an excuse to cover the fact that this administration didn't do everything they could have done."
Perhaps if FBI agents hadn't been waiting for a warrant to open Moussaoui's computer...
