Senators Urged to Stop Patriot Act Expansion

KTVA | September 29 2004

Two political forces are coming together to try and stop Congress from expanding the Patriot Act. It's not too often that voters on the left combine forces with their conservative counterparts, but that is exactly what is happening in this case. In a paid advertisement in the Anchorage Daily News and the Juneau Empire is encouraging voters to contact Senator Stevens, and Senator Murkowski to stop any amendments to the 9-11 commission report. But what might surprise you is who came together to pay for the ad.

The ad is paid for by Alaska Civil Liberties Union, the American Conservative Union. It reads, "Don't Confuse the Patriot Act with Patriotism." The concern is that because of the upcoming election, Congress is going to rush the 9-11 commission report recommendation and might add amendments to the bill. Some of the measures Congress is said to introduce is a national ID card, that would put people in database system, so all DMV information would be accessible nationwide. Those types of ideas are what are unifying political parties. "Civil liberties are something that all Americans care about, republican, democrats, conservative, or liberal and this is the case where all American from all political ideologies are coming together to protect the freedoms that Americans have enjoyed for 250 years or more. So it's a unique coalition,” says Scott Anaya the director of Alaska Civil Liberties Union.

The coalition says they ran the ads to make sure Americans freedom rights are NOT compromised. Wayne Ross, a local attorney says, once that compromise takes place, most of the time Americans do NOT get rights back. "We just want to remind them that is very important that we maintain our freedoms and that we focus the actions that Congress is doing on the bad guys, and not take away the freedoms of Alaskan's and other American citizens,” says Wayne Ross.

It in when the 9-11 commission report is in the Congress that groups are concerned about amendments. But Senator Lisa Murkowski spokesperson weighed in on the topic as well, and says Murkowski is on the record for being against any type of expansion of the patriot act. Senator Stevens has seen the ad, but was too busy to make a comment today.

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