China Responds: “Expiration Of The Patriot Act Is Not The End Of Washington’s Intrusive Spying”

Writing in the Politburo-owned mouthpiece The Global Times, China responds to the ‘expiry’ of The Patriot Act…
Expiry of Patriot Act is not end of Washington’s intrusive spying
Some provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the foundation of the massive US foreign and domestic wiretapping program and other controversial intelligence-collection operations, are set to expire on June 1, if they are not renewed. Although the House passed the renewed bill, the Senate failed to do so on May 23, leaving those controversial provisions with a pressing deadline for expiration. Without them, some intelligence operations currently carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies will be illegal. It seems to be a big deal for the US intelligence community and all those affected.
After 9/11, the post-traumatic urge pushed forward the most profound intelligence reforms in decades, and as a result, intelligence budgets were raised, intelligence organizations and structures aligned, and laws enacted. The USA Patriot Act has generated a great deal of controversy since its enactment. Supporters defend it by saying that the act provides a legal basis for many effective intelligence operations against terrorists. Opponents argue that the act violates fundamental constitutional principles, for it allows investigators obtain “any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents and other items),” as long as the records are sought “in connection” with a terror investigation, which may put citizens’ privacy in jeopardy.
The question is, it has been more than a decade after the first enactment of the Patriot Act, and it has undergone several extensions, why block it now?

This post was published at Zero Hedge on 06/01/2015.