Feingold: ‘Sneak-and-peek’ searches being used for regular crimes
Daniel Tencer - Raw Story - Thursday, Sept 24th, 2009
The Justice Department made 763 requests for “sneak-and-peek” warrants in 2008, but only three of those had to with terrorism investigations, Sen. Russ Feingold told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
“Sneak-and-peek” warrants allow law enforcement officials to break into homes and businesses and search the premises without the investigated party knowing. The authority for them was passed as part of the USA Patriot Act in late 2001, ostensibly as a counter-terrorism measure.
Sen. Feingold (D-WI) said that 65 percent of the cases for which sneak-and-peek warrants were used were drug investigations. And Assistant Attorney General David Kris told Feingold that, in most terrorism cases, surveillance methods are “generally covert altogether,” and do not use sneak-and-peek warrants.
The revelations strengthen the arguments of opponents of the Patriot Act, who have long said that the powers granted the government to fight terrorism in the wake of 9/11 would end up being used for other purposes. Now, it appears that one of those powers — sneak-and-peek searches — was never meant for terrorism investigations in the first place. [...]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I haven't done my research on this, but if you look I'll bet you find that "sneak and peek" warrant go back further than 2001 and originate far before the Patriot Act.
ReplyDeleteThey may have included "sneak and peek" warrants as part of the Patriot Act for investigations regarding terrorism, but we were using these types of investigative warrants years before 2001...
You're right. The Patriot Act was new in degree, not in kind. The Government has been engaged in surveillance for decades.
ReplyDelete