🚀 go-pugleaf

David Matin, San Antonio Current
http://www.sacurrent.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10705756&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=482778&rfi=6

On December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President
George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team,
but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the
FBI sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the
curious timing of the signing - on a Saturday - as "the President
signs bills seven days a week." But the last time Bush signed a bill
into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago - on a spending
bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shuttng down the
federal government the following Monday.

By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively
consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere
footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was
probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained
the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't
suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.
 
By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively
consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere
footnote.
  
The Bush Administration and its Congressional allies tucked away these
new executive powers in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal
Year 2004, a legislative behemoth that funds all the intelligence
activities of the federal government. The Act included a simple, yet
insidious, redefinition of "financial institution," which previously
referred to banks, but now includes stockbrokers, car dealerships,
casinos, credit card companies, insurance agencies, jewelers,
airlines, the U.S. Post Office, and any other business "whose cash
transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or
regulatory matters"