The Patriot Act continues to wreak its havoc on civil liberties. Section 213 was included in the Patriot Act over the protests of privacy advocates and granted law enforcement the power to conduct a search while delaying notice to the suspect of the search. Known as a “sneak and peek” warrant, law enforcement was adamant Section 213 was needed to protect against terrorism. But the latest government report detailing the numbers of “sneak and peek” warrants reveals that out of a total of over 11,000 sneak and peek requests, only 51 were used for terrorism.
I think the most frightening thing is considering this information alongside the “targeted killing” drone assassination program permitted to target even American citizens for death, anywhere on Earth, at any time, for secret reasons that a person meets a secret definition of the enemy, based on secret evidence, in a secret process undertaken by unidentified officials. Oh sure, the first few targets were legitimate terrorism targets, but what about the next thousand?