Gonzales urges speedy vote on Patriot Act

WASHINGTON--Senate Republicans and the Bush administration took the offensive Tuesday against critics of the Patriot Act, saying on the eve of an expected vote that Congress must renew the law for four years.

In a last-minute pitch before the vote, which could happen in the House of Representatives as early as Wednesday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales warned against any delays. "We have been talking about the Patriot Act for months and months," Gonzalez said. "I think the time to act is now."

Sixteen portions of the massive law, including ones relating to electronic and Internet surveillance, expire on Dec. 31. The majority will stay in effect unless repealed.

Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the bill's chief sponsor, and Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, joined Gonzales at the press conference on Capitol Hill. "It's a good law, and it ought to be passed this week and signed by the president promptly," said Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

A flurry of opposition in the Senate, led by Democrats and a few Republicans, has imperiled the so-called "conference report" (click here for PDF) that would extend the Patriot Act by four years while increasing the number of reports that would be sent to Congress on how it is being used.

That hastily assembled coalition is calling for more-substantial reforms. If those can't be finalized by the end of the year, the dissenting senators said Monday, a three-month renewal would be acceptable as an alternative.

Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who was alone in voting against the original Patriot Act in 2001, has threatened to employ a filibuster. "We are prepared to use whatever means we are allowed to use under the Senate rules to try to prevent this conference report from becoming law," Feingold said on the Senate floor Monday, according to a copy of his remarks posted on his Web site.

In a parallel bid to assuage concerns over the reach of the conference report, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, made available a 7-page letter (click here for PDF) saying that civil libertarians "can, and should, embrace" the conference report.

The conference report also includes arguably unrelated rules about trafficking in narcotics, photographing bridges and tunnels, and smuggling goods into the United States. Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican who chairs the House International Relations Committee, said some of those provisions aim to address the "rapidly growing threat" posed by "the link between terrorist funding and the trafficking of illicit narcotics."

Also on Tuesday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center released a series of documents that show FBI agents had expressed "frustration" with the internal Justice Department oversight process for conducting surreptitious monitoring under Sec. 215 of the Patriot Act.

Sec. 215, one of the sections that's due to expire Dec. 31, expanded how police could use the powerful Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to obtain documents--including medical, student and library records--from businesses.

The documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request suggest that the FBI had decided to "bypass" the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review when pursing Sec. 215 surveillance. Electronic Privacy Information Center Director Marc Rotenberg said Congress should not renew the law until the FBI complies with the remainder of the FOIA request.

[acklark]

Congress needs to vote down

This Act is an insult to me, personally. I ask the question "why did this act ever get passed in the first place?"

Throughout my entire life (as did my forefathers), I have devoted myself to the freedoms and justice of these United States. This act is a personal attack on the freedoms that honest and law abiding citizens of this great country fought and died for.

Every aspect of this Patriots Act needs to be checked by Congress very thoroughly and thrown out when it infringes on the privacy and freedoms of Citizens. I don't give a hoot how long it takes. I shall hold all members of our Congress (regardless of their party) very responsable if they extend this Act any longer and I will do all in my power to get those who endorse this Act ousted from their seat in office when they are up for election or re-election.

[casper2004]

Alberto Gonzales is in place because the President new he'd be his P.A.L.

Good luck in trying to get those who endorse the act ousted. Our votes don't count. The gunmint has us do it to let us believe we're actually doing something.

[wtortorici]

Lynn, you are right...

The only thing needed is co-operation between all of the intellegent agencies as was shown by the 9/11 commission.
The Bush administration is hell-bent on creating marshall law without saying it is marshall law.

[aroyce]

Speed essential when you are being underhanded

You bet he wants a quick vote...before anybody has time to read it and think about it. We certainly would not want that "dirty little constitution" to get in the way of turning America into a police state. Good laws can stand public scrutiny and debate. Wake-up people! Our Southern border is wide open so in no way does our government want to protect us! This is a scam, plain and simple.

[Michael Grogan]

Gonzales is right!

We need a speedy vote in congress to ABOLISH the so-called Patriot Act in its entirety!

[casper2004]

The system wants to cash in on America's misfortunes

The fascists wants the drug section to stay in The Patriot Act because they know that lots and lots of people use them, and they stand to make a killing abusing that alone. They want to rule your body and soul. You give them anything less, and you'll be called an enabler of terrorism!

[heystoopid]

Oh well!

Oh well, who needs a bill of rights guaranteeing basic freedoms?
With these new additional clauses, obsequient unelected government officials can determine what clauses in both law and the constitution , no longer apply, at the stroke of a pen.
I can see why Gonzales, wants this act to pass without review, for it in effect makes him the most powerful unelected official in the US!, and puts him in a position, that is above and beyond the authority of any politician, including the President!

[charles_hrdng]

Presenting Microwave Surveillance Techniques

Is this the 'Information Age' or the 'Disinformation Age'? The Federal Government of the United States is so fractured over their management of Microwave Surveillance technology, which I describe during the subsequent passage, that it is difficult to imagine this incredibly expensive 'Security' community catching a cold in an Arctic windtunnel. Why grant them more power to hide their ineptitude?

I am reporting the criminal misuse of Microwave Surveillance techniques by the Florida Public Service Commission in Tallahassee, Florida. As a material witness I will describe this technology, its effects on a human being, and ways to demonstrate this technology in public. I will, also, provide a list of State of Florida employees who are cognizant about this activity.

Imagine being able to track a human being, monitor the sounds and conversations in his environment, and conduct terrorism via a geostationary satellite 22,300 miles in orbit.

At the Florida Public Service Commission in Tallahassee, Florida, a Teleconferencing Station centering around a Microwave Transceiver and Parabolic Microwave Transmission Dish is used to create an uplink to a Commercial Communication Satellite operating between 3.7 and 4.2 Gigahertz (GHZ), C-Band Communications.

The returning, downlink, signal is then demodulated allowing the sights and sounds of the targeted person?s environment to be presented on television and recorded.

Any television station with a mobile news van can duplicate the effects of Microwave Surveillance. Uplink to a Commercial Geostationary Satellite at C-Band Frequencies and you can conduct surveillance like the Professionals.


Microwave Surveillance from Commercial Satellites

1.0 Summary of Critical Points

1.1 Microwave Surveillance techniques have been in use for over fifty years.

1.2 As a result of the deployment of commercial communications satellites around the globe since the 1970?s Microwave Surveillance from space has been conducted by governmental agencies and corporate entities against unsuspecting citizens without any governmental oversight whatsoever.

1.3 The effects of human exposure to elevated levels of microwave radiation range from discomfort to death- an effect called Electronarcosis.

1.4 Sufficient information about Microwave Surveillance is available that any citizen or organization desiring an understanding of this technology and its effects will find public source documentation which covers most aspects of the technology?s use and abuse.

1.5 Reporting criminal misuse of Microwave Surveillance techniques is virtually impossible because of poor information transfer within the law enforcement community, lack of training on the part of law enforcement professionals, and, all too often, bad attitudes.

The Tenth Judicial Circuit in Oregon has considered a comparable technology, FLIR or Forward Looking Infrared Radar. FLIR detects even the tiniest differences in temperature and enables its user to detect what is happening inside buildings, by more or less looking through the walls themselves. The Tenth Circuit has raised questions about the new technologies, including FLIR.
The Court threw out a case in which agents had used FLIR to locate marijuana by detecting the heat of artificial lamps used to grow the plants.

To hold otherwise would leave the privacy of the home at the mercy of government?s ability to exploit technological advances: the government could always argue that an individual?s failure (or inability) to ward off the incursions of the latest scientific innovation forfeits the protection of the Fourth Amendment. The government would allow the privacy of the home to hinge upon the outcome of a technological measure/counter-measure between the average citizen and the government, a race, we expect, that the people would surely lose.

Once the Court system is allowed to consider Microwave Surveillance, a comparable determination will undoubtedly follow.

? Nonlethal Weapons: War Without Death, by David A. Morehouse, p.119, 1996
? ?. . . microwave weapons are . . . not so new. Their concept has been in existence almost since radar was developed. It was known that the concentrated radar beam could kill, and it was explored as a potential weapon early on. The new applications for the technology possess high lethal as well as non-lethal capabilities. They can scramble brain waves, and cause indecision, nausea, vomiting, muscle spasms, and uncontrolled body movement . . . humans are reduced to squirming masses.?

With the incredible tracking capability of space-based Microwave Surveillance technology, why is Osa ben Laden still so elusive?


Microwave Surveillance from Commercial Satellites

2.0 Summary of Critical Points

2.1 Microwave Surveillance techniques have been in use for over fifty years.

2.2 As a result of the deployment of commercial communications satellites around the globe since the 1970?s Microwave Surveillance from space has been conducted by governmental agencies and corporate entities against unsuspecting citizens without any governmental oversight whatsoever.

2.3 The effects of human exposure to elevated levels of microwave radiation range from discomfort to death- an effect called Electronarcosis.

2.4 Sufficient information about Microwave Surveillance is available that any citizen or organization desiring an understanding of this technology and its effects will find public source documentation which covers most aspects of the technology?s use and abuse.

2.5 Reporting criminal misuse of Microwave Surveillance techniques is virtually impossible because of poor information transfer within the law enforcement community, lack of training on the part of law enforcement professionals, and, all too often, bad attitudes.

3.0 Statement of Problems to be Resolved

3.1 Would the United States Congress have the people that they are elected to serve believe that they are too busy to develop cognizance about Microwave Surveillance technology when a portion of each year?s federal budget is directed toward the acquisition of new equipment from this technology area? Solution- make the U.S. Congress aware of the problems and potentials associated with Microwave Surveillance.

3.2 Would the United States Department of Justice have the people that they are sworn to serve and protect believe that they are too busy to develop any sort of understanding about a technology which is documented in their own literature and deployed by Special Agents on their payroll? Solution- help the United States Department of Justice to gain a broader awareness of the problems and potentials associated with Microwave Surveillance.

3.3 With the incredible tracking capability of space-based Microwave Surveillance technology, why is Osa ben Laden still so elusive? Solution- start by solving problems 2.1 and 2.2.


4.0 Commercial Communications Satellites for Microwave Surveillance
(Technical presentation of satellite operations is drawn from the World of Satellite TV, Ninth Edition, Chapter1 (pp. 9-18), by Mark Long, The Book Publishing Company, Summertown, Tennessee, July, 1998)

In October of 1945, a gifted science and science fiction writer proposed the extraordinary idea of using stationary satellites to beam television and other communications signals around the world. Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous with Rama, The Hammer of God, ect.) reasoned that if a satellite were positioned high enough above the Earth?s equator, its orbit could be matched by the rotation of the Earth. The satellite would then appear to be fixed in one particular spot in the sky. Because a satellite?s orbital speed varies with its distance from the Earth, a ?geostationary? orbit is only possible directly above the equator, in a narrow belt about 22,300 miles out. Although it took the technology a while to catch up with his simple but elegant concept, today there are hundreds of satellites taking advantage of his original thinking. In recognition of his pioneering vision, this band of outer space? real estate? is called the Clarke Orbit.

In 1965, the Early Bird satellite became the world?s first commercial geostationary satellite. It could carry 240 telephone communications circuits, or one television channel, at a time. On June 2, 1965, Early Bird introduced live television across the Atlantic Ocean. Early Bird was the first satellite to be owned and operated by the International Telecommunication Satellite Organization (INTELSAT).

First Canada, then the United States, and subsequently other countries constructed their own geostationary satellite systems. Each new satellite had greater capabilities, expanding our ideas of the technically possible. As of early 1998, there were more than 150 domestic and international communications satellites in geostationary orbit over the Earth?s equator.

4.1 Uplinks and Downlinks
Each satellite is both a receiver and a transmitter. First, the ground station, also called the uplink, sends a signal to the satellite. The satellite automatically changes the signals frequency and retransmits it back to stations on the ground. This second path is called the downlink. A satellite is much like a broadcasting tower 22,300 miles high, an automatic relay station that can transmit into a coverage area, which encompasses up to 42.4 percent of the Earth?s surface.

Each satellite has a number of redundant modules, spare components that can be switched into operation in the event that any malfunction occurs. Ground control stations can remotely switch in backup facilities in case of failure.

4.2 Satellite Transponders
Every communications satellite carries several channels, called transponders, which process communications traffic. Most satellites have sixteen or more transponders in operation, each capable of transmitting one or more television signals as well as thousands of simultaneous telephone conversations.

The satellite frequency ?bands? are located high above those used by earth-bound TV channels. Sunspots or other atmospheric conditions do not affect these super-high frequencies; satellites therefore, provide extremely reliable communications coverage 24 hours a day.

Operating at frequencies of several billion cycles per second, or Gigahertz (GHZ), the region?s satellites relay communications via two distinct communications bands. North America?s high-power services use frequencies ranging from 12.2 to 12.7 GHZ. A few operators using medium-power satellites use adjacent frequencies from 11.7 to 12.2 GHZ. The entire frequency spectrum from 10.7 to 12.75 GHZ is commonly called the ?Ku? band. Throughout the Americas, numerous other satellites are available that operate within a lower frequency spectrum ranging from 3.7 to 4.2 GHZ (the frequency of observed Microwave Surveillance operations). This frequency range is known as the ?C? band.

4.3 Footprints to Surveillance
The satellite?s transmission area covers a certain part of the Earth?s surface, called a footprint. An agency, such as the Florida Public Service Commission, with access to a satellite?s operating codes can ?commandeer? the services of one of the satellite?s transponders and conduct surveillance of a targeted individual and intercept all conversations and sounds within the surroundings of this individual.

Then-Senator, later Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen makes reference to this capability in his book One-Eyed Kings.

(The National Security Agency is) charged with intercepting and interpreting signals intelligence, which ranges from radio and electronic signals emitted during Soviet and Chinese missile tests to conversations taking place in (the Soviet Premier?s) dacha, limousine, or bathroom. Satellites deep in space listen as if they were on an old-fashioned party line. (p.44)

A subsequent passage refers to GLOWWORM, which allows individuals to be tracked ?under ground, under water, anywhere?. This writer has three gold bridges, each of which is at least three centimeters long. So long as the wavelength of the transmitted signal is shorter than the targeted object, which in this case it is, the signal will bounce back to the sender like a radar image.

4.4 Surveillance to Terrorism
Building from the definition for ?radar?- radio for direction and ranging- the radio signal beamed as the downlink from a satellite transponder functions as radar picking up the much denser gold bridges. This writer?s travels have been followed from Toronto, Ontario down to San Juan, Puerto Rico and all points in between, including underground travel on the Metro subway system in Washington, D.C. and an American Airlines flight to Puerto Rico. GLOWWORM indeed!

Following are quotes taken from an Internet article written by Julianne McKinney, Director of the Electronic Surveillance Project of the Association of National Security Alumni, titled ?Microwaves and Mind Control?.

Externally induced auditory input could be achieved by means of pulsed microwave audiograms, or analogs of spoken word sounds. The effect on the receiving end is the (schizophrenic) sensation of ?hearing? voices which are no part of the recipients own thought processes.

Such a device has obvious applications in covert operations designed to drive a target crazy with ?voices?.

Tracking a target with a satellite-based communication signal, capturing the sounds in the targeted individuals environment, and terrorism via the transmission of ?voices? from the ground control station across 44,600 miles of space into the head of the targeted individual create a starting point for understanding the danger of covert Microwave Surveillance operations.

4.0 Electronarcosis and Signals Interception
One way that Electronarcosis effects are produced is through the raising of the temperature of the targeted individual. When water molecules are heated, the body temperature rises. Between 105 and 107 degrees Fahrenheit the targeted individual will experience a seizure- at 109 degrees, death occurs.

About a half a second after ?One?, I felt a warm spot on my back. A millisecond later the heat intensified dramatically, as though someone were pressing a burner on my back. I expected to hear sizzling, to smell burning flesh. The pain exploded to the point where I was no longer actually thinking, and I certainly wasn?t in any control of my reactions . . . I had lasted about two seconds.

The above quote is taken from ?Shoot to Not Kill?, Popular Science, 5/03. This passage describes the author?s reaction to being targeted by the Active Denial System, a HUMVEE configured with a microwave transceiver and a parabolic transmission dish on its roof. Transmitting at 98 Gigahertz (GHZ), the unit will beam a focused beam of microwave radiation used to disperse crowds. The same painful effect is felt by an individual targeted by a microwave satellite transmission generated in the range of 3.7 to 4.2 GHZ, C-Band satellite operations.

The other way that Electronarcosis works is through the disruption of brainwave functioning by overloading the electrochemical operation of the brain with a steady, elevated level of microwave radiation. A victim will experience disorientation, vertigo, and nausea. In preparing the magazine article ?Wonder Weapons?, Newsweek, July 7, 1997, pp. 38-46, written by Mr. Douglas Pasternak talked to more than 70 experts and scoured biomedical journals, contracts, budgets, and research proposals. Two segments below, taken from that article, echo the painful, debilitating effect that can be induced by a focused beam of microwave radiation.

Typical of some of the more exotic projects are those from Clay Easterly. Last December, Easterly- who works at the Health Sciences Research Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory- briefed the Marine Corps on work he has done for the National Institute of Justice, which does research on crime control. One of the projects he suggested was an electromagnetic gun that would induce ?epileptic-like seizures.? Another was a ?thermal gun? that would have the operational effect of heating the body 105 to 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Such effects would bring on discomfort, fevers, or even death.

Mission Research Corp. of Albuquerque, N.M., has used a computer to study the ability of microwaves to stimulate the body?s peripheral nervous system. ?If sufficient peripheral nerves fire, then the body shuts down to further stimulus, producing the so-called stun effect,? an abstract states.

Signals Interception of brain wave activity is one of the most fascinating and, interestingly, unmentioned characteristics of Microwave Surveillance operations. This ability to capture and record the images generated in the Visual Cortex and the sounds of a person?s inner dialogue has wonderful potential in the fields of Sleep Research, Psychotherapy, and Criminal Investigation. The measurement of brain waves, Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Theta, by Electroencephalography (EEG) is an accepted practice around the world. The capturing, on-screen presentation, and recording of mental images and dialogue intercepted by a focused beam of microwave radiation, even a beam bounced off a satellite 22,300 miles above the equator, is a capability whose broader introduction and use is retarded by a misshapen assessment of the security status of the United States of America and gross mismanagement of information. If the weak personalities at the Florida Public Service Commission can not only have cognizance but also criminally abuse this technology, why not let the rest of the world in on this once-secret technology. This will allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be publicly knowledgeable, enabling this writer to report, and ultimately see closed, a broad-based criminal conspiracy in the government of the State of Florida.

5.0 Microwave Surveillance and the Law
Information can be readily compiled from public sources and the provisions of USCA, Title 18, Chapter 119 allow government, through the authorization of a cognizant court, to utilize multiple avenues toward the assurance of an effective demonstration. Mr. Larry Fullerton of Huntsville, Alabama is developing equipment in this area and might serve as a source of expert testimony. Mr. Steve Paine of Illinois Valley Community College was involved with the development of Microwave Surveillance equipment when he worked for Hughes Electronics. Jane?s Defense Publications conducts seminars on this and other Non-Lethal (Variable Lethality) Technologies, which feature speakers from the Missouri State Police, U.S. Justice Department, and the U.S. Marine Corps.

The Tenth Judicial Circuit in Oregon has considered a comparable technology, FLIR or Forward Looking Infrared Radar. FLIR detects even the tiniest differences in temperature and enables its user to detect what is happening inside buildings, by more or less looking through the walls themselves. Some federal courts have ruled that government agents should be able to scan subjects without a warrant because all that is detected is ?waste heat.? The Tenth Circuit, however, has raised questions about the new technologies, including FLIR. The Court threw out a case in which agents had used FLIR to locate marijuana by detecting the heat of artificial lamps used to grow the plants.

To hold otherwise would leave the privacy of the home at the mercy of government?s ability to exploit technological advances: the government could always argue that an individual?s failure (or inability) to ward off the incursions of the latest scientific innovation forfeits the protection of the Fourth Amendment. The government would allow the privacy of the home to hinge upon the outcome of a technological measure/counter-measure between the average citizen and the government, a race, we expect, that the people would surely lose.

This decision was upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 decision. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority that the court could not cast away the Florence, OR, man?s Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches to allow police to use ?sense-enhancing technology.? ?Any evidence obtained from the interior of someone?s home, which could not have been gathered legally by a physical intrusion, constitutes a search,? he wrote. ?That?s especially true,? he said, ?when the technology is not in general public use.?

Once the Court system is allowed to consider Microwave Surveillance, a comparable determination will undoubtedly follow.

Charles F. Harding
1698 NE 16th Avenue
Apt. F
Gainesville, Florida 32601
[phone]
[e-mail]

[casper2004]

We should use the technology on government instead.

Actually, Charles, it seems to me that government can only use this technology one person at a time. What I mean by that is, they will need to pick a name and than track that persons every movement. To do all of us at once would be impossible unless of course they killed 2/3rds of the world, in which case it may be easier.

[lightbulbturnedon]

Microwave surveillance

I read your article with much interest. The article is dead on
correct regarding the microwave surveillance methods being used
by the FBI and other US Government entities. I am a direct witness
to these attacks since they are being used against me now. My
question is, what can I as a citizen do to bring this attack to light?
Your article speak of the ignorance by law enforcement of how
these tools are being used. If this is the case, what tools are there
for private citizens to bring this to light?

[Pluqueric]

Let Congress Know

It is time for everyone with a PC and a word processor to email his/her Congressperson and Senators to let them know that you are fed up with their callous disregard for the rights and freedoms upon which this great nation was founded.

People think that one voice is too small to be heard. That might actually be true. Tour Congressional delegation is not going to read your email. But one of their staff members is going to notice the flood of emails voicing string disapproval of the Patriot Act. Suddenly, those elected representatives of the people realize: oops, maybe I should give this some serious thought.

No, your email did not come to the attention of the Senator; neither did mine; neither did the email of millions of others. BUT, as they began to build, someone starting taking note.

Do it! Make it short -- make it long. But do not remain silent. A monumental surge is in the process of becoming too big to ignore. It took a lot of drops in the ocean to create the tsunami of 2004 -- a LOT of drops!

[casper2004]

The perfect Senator to dump the emails on is Ted Kennedy.

What about the hurricane that beat up New Orleans? What do you think that was? An act of God, or an act of government?

[binaryspiral75]

Go Russ!

I voted for Russ - and will for a long time. He's the kind of guy that actually reads the bills he's voting on, not just reacting to the media's feedback.

The Patriot Act is garbage.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Ben Franklin

[casper2004]

Can you spell plunder?

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety aren't doing it for that reason. They are doing it because they are an evildoer who wants to rip off as many americans as he/she can.

[lightbulbturnedon]

Victim of Microwave attacks

Charles, I read this article with much interest. I am currently
being targeted by the FBI with the very methods you disussed. I
did not know how or what technology could penetrate my home,
my person, cause the physical affects that I was (am)
experiencing now. What course of action is there for bringing
these people to justice? How do we make this known and make
them have their day in court? What proofs can we bring to a
lawyer? You missed one method that is being used 24/7 against
me -- applying heat to the feet at 2 - 3 minutes intervals. The
surveillance agents are also attacking my brain --
lightheadedness. I also have a second email account -
[e-mail]. Let me know what avenues are out there for
us who are being tageted with deadly surveillance tactics.

[e-mail]
[e-mail]