"Dstacey"
The Patriot Act will foul up a lot of people!
Fri Aug 29 01:19:25 2003
64.140.158.65

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The Patriot Act will foul up a lot of people!
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 23:35:19 -0400
From: "Dstacey" donald.stacey@comcast.net
To:


We have been seeing the most egregious aspects of the Patriot Act in recent messages. But how about the less well-known provisions that will soon be bedeviling most of us. This is a powerful message for those who say I have nothing to hide so why be concerned. Most of us will run into the provision described in this article sooner or later.

We must REPEAL THE USA PATRIOT ACT NOW!

Don Stacey

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SF Gate www.sfgate.com  Return to regular view

Would-be investor runs afoul of Patriot Act
Kathleen Pender
Thursday, August 28, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/28/BU298595.DTL



Shortly after he graduated from college in May, French Clements of San Jose tried to open an online brokerage account with Harrisdirect, where his stepfather has an account.

A day after he completed the online application, however, he got a brief e- mail from Harrisdirect saying, "We regret to inform you that we are unable to approve your application at this time: The customer's identity not properly authenticated per the USA Patriot Act."

Clements was stunned, and so was his mother, Alayne Yellum. "Maybe they don't like people named French," she says.

Changing his first name to Freedom would not help.

Clements is an unintended victim of Section 326 of the Patriot Act, which requires financial institutions to:

-- Verify the identity of anyone opening an account.

-- Maintain records of the information used to verify the person's identity.

-- Determine whether the person appears on any list of known or suspected terrorists or terrorist organizations.

Banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions, securities brokers, mutual funds and futures merchants must comply with the act by Oct. 1. Many firms, such as Harrisdirect, are already doing so.

Eventually, other companies that open accounts may have to comply, including casinos, pawnbrokers, insurance companies, money-transfer agents, auto dealers, real estate companies and some telecommunications firms.

Section 326 of the Patriot Act, passed in October 2001, is designed to "ensure that all financial institutions are appropriately identifying customers to guard against money laundering and the financing of terror," says a U.S. Treasury Department official who would not be identified. Preventing identity theft is an auxiliary benefit.

That's a laudable goal, but complying with the law will cost companies a small fortune.

"It's very expensive. The numbers are extremely large," says Alan Sorcher, associate general counsel for the Securities Industry Association.

Some of the costs will be passed along to consumers.

Consumer advocates also fear the Patriot Act will give companies another reason to invade privacy and prevent some people without criminal intent from opening accounts.

"This ranges between stupid, insidious and dangerous," says Doug Heller, a senior consumer advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

HOW IT WORKS

The law applies only to new account holders, not existing ones.

It requires financial institutions to collect at least four pieces of information from prospective customers: name, street address, date of birth and a taxpayer identification number, such as the Social Security number.

Institutions have been collecting all or most of this information for years,

but now it's required.

Next, the institution must verify that new customers are who they say they are through "documentary evidence," such as a passport or driver's license, or through "non-documentary evidence."

If a customer walks into a bank or brokerage office with a valid driver's license and tries to open an account with $10,000, the institution probably won't ask for more information.

When a customer tries to open an account online or over the phone, things get complicated.

Many online brokers are trying to verify applicants' identity by cross- checking the information they provide with credit bureaus and other external databases.

"We know how many mistakes are in credit reports. If that's where they're getting information, we're all in trouble," says Emily Whitfield, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union.

CLEMENTS' STORY

At Harrisdirect, prospective customers must give the brokerage firm permission to access their credit report.

At the end of the online application, customers are asked four multiple- choice questions drawn from their credit report at Equifax, one of three major credit bureaus.

They might be asked which bank holds their home loan and the size of their monthly payment. If they answer incorrectly, they could be rejected.

After Clements was spurned, he called Harrisdirect. A service rep said he must have answered the questions from his credit report wrong. But Clements says he never saw any questions from his credit report.

He applied a second time. Again he saw no questions from his credit report, and again he got an identical rejection citing the Patriot Act.

I called Harrisdirect on his behalf. Executive Managing Director Mike Hogan looked into Clements' application and said he must have bungled the credit report questions.

When I said Clements never saw those questions, Hogan said that was next-to- impossible.

"We're happy to see if there was a burp in the system that caused this problem," he said. "I'd be pretty surprised if that was the issue."

Later, a spokeswoman from Harrisdirect called back with a new explanation: "The address he was using did not match what was in his history with Equifax, so he didn't get the four questions."

After graduating from Fordham University in New York, Clements recently moved back to San Jose.

"He never got to the authentication because his address didn't compute," says John Ford, chief privacy officer with Equifax. "I regret that this gentleman wasn't able to get what he wanted, but we have an obligation under the law to make sure people are who they say they are. There are a lot of fraudsters out there."

Hogan says people who are rejected online can mail in a copy of their license or passport to verify their identity. Clements says Harrisdirect never suggested that.

Clements, 22, has $3,000 to invest and hoped to start a retirement plan.

Now, "part of me just wants to take my money and put it a paper bag under the mattress," he says. "Part of me wants to go to a different firm. But what are they going to do? Check the same Equifax? It's a little scary knowing they have this much power over my finances, especially for such a lame reason -- a wrong address."

A PERSONAL NOTE

I went to Harrisdirect's Web site to open an account. I did get four questions, supposedly from my credit report, but none made sense.

It said I took out an auto loan around May 2000 and asked me to name the lender and the term. I haven't had a car loan in more than a decade.

It said I took out a home loan in March 2000 with one of four banks. One is my current lender, but it wasn't my lender in March 2000.

Confused, I answered "none of the above" to all four questions.

A second later, I had an account with Harrisdirect.

I asked Hogan about my experience.

"You got the placebo effect," he says. "They don't present real questions to everyone."

I asked half a dozen other financial institutions how they are complying with the Patriot Act, but none would divulge how, exactly, they are verifying identities.

"It's proprietary in some respects," says Glen Mathison, a spokesman for the broker Charles Schwab. Also, "it's not good to show a road map" to terrorists and money launderers, he says.

"There have been accounts that we have not opened" as a result of the Patriot Act, Mathison says, but he would not say why the applicants were turned down.

Heller, the consumer advocate, wonders whether companies will use the information they obtain doing "homeland security" work to sell some people more products or to avoid customers they'd rather not have.

"Obviously, you want to make sure that people aren't using false identities.

But when a corporation is allowed to go into your personal financial information, what protection do we have that they are not using that information beyond its stated purpose?" he says.

©2003 San Francisco Chronicle
------------------------------------
Ashcroft's New Clothes
Eartha Melzer, AlterNet
August 28, 2003
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16672

Maybe it was the only crowd that could be counted on to sit still and
not ask questions. Around two hundred law enforcement officials served
as audience for Attorney General John Ashcroft's visit to Detroit this
past Thursday. Ashcroft's visit to the city was part of his
cross-country charm offensive for the PATRIOT Act.
It was an ozone action day, haze blanketed the city, and people who just
last week had no gas at all were asked to wait to fuel their car till
night. Inside Cobo Hall, the drinking fountains were still shut-off from
the blackout-induced boil water advisory.
The Mayor had just declared a state of emergency in Detroit (in hopes of
qualifying for disaster relief funds) but no one was talking about that.
Police of every stripe, some in white dress uniforms, others all in
black with knee high boots, milled around until Ashcroft arrived and
they were told to sit.
Two rows of chairs were set up on the stage and officers were called by
name to come and take their seats as multi-cultural (and
multi-jurisdictional) wallpaper for the Ashcroft address. High tech,
see-through glass teleprompters were set up on each side of the podium
and the press corps stood at attention.
Jeffrey Collins, U.S. Attorney for Michigan's Eastern District
introduced Ashcroft with glowing and mystical language.
"For his strength of character as the nation's top law enforcement
official I applaud him, generations yet unborn applaud him...and now
let's give him a warm Detroit welcome..." It sounded like a revival
meeting.
Ashcroft heaped praise on the cops, calling them heroes. Ashcroft said
their cooperation in transmitting evidence is helping to win the War on
Terror. He called them soldiers in the front lines of the War on Terror.
He didn't mention recent reports by the Detroit Free Press that the
Detroit Police department has more fatal shootings and has paid out more
in settlements per capita than any other major police department. This
pattern actually forced a Justice Department investigation of the
Detroit police and the creation of a court supervised consent decree
intended to remedy the pattern of abuse.
Detroit is among the 154 municipalities which have passed civil
liberties defense resolutions and instructed local police not to comply
with unconstitutional orders stemming from the PATRIOT Act. Ashcroft
didn't mention this either.
In soothing tones he read from the prompters...intoning "terrorist" as
if he were saying "bogey man" with hate, vigor and fear.
As Ashcroft preached, "Hallowed by the blood of innocents"... "vow"...
"consecrated land", one man shouted out, "Tell them how you are using
people's fear to create a police state. Which one of your terrorists
will you use for the next 9/11?"
Hundreds of police turned and looked at the disrupter. A fat man in a
suit with walkie-talkie began moving quickly to the protester, but
Ashcroft called him off.
"That's the great thing about America," Ashcroft said, "Freedom of
speech, everyone has a right to an opinion, but, we don't necessarily
value every opinion, especially those which are infirm in substantial
ways."
The disrupter slowly walked out, wishing Ashcroft a nice tour and the
speech concluded.
"We will finish the work we began on September 11th," said Ashcroft.
That work includes detentions, privacy invasions, and the consolidation
of police forces. The police were led in a round of applause and then
they were dismissed.
There were no questions.
Reporters scrambled to get some responses from the police but no one
seemed to want to comment A city police spokesperson in gray suit and
9/11 pin was mobbed by camera people. His eyes looked glazed over.
"Aren't you concerned that people's rights are being violated?" asked a
TV news reporter. "What about people being held without charges by
military tribunals?" No reason for concern the man said calmly, staring
off into the distance.
Outside, Ashcroft's disrupter had joined a wider demonstration. Members
of the Blue Triangl Network, the Raging Grannies union members and peace
groups called for an end to the PATRIOT Act, war, racial profiling, and
corporate dominance.
>From the bright light of the world outside the tightly scripted press
event, the Ashcroft appearance seemed surreal. He seemed like the Wizard
of Oz, surrounded by flags and prompters. Even in the company of the
region's top police, there seemed to be no security. Police didn't even
check the bags of those attending this conference. It seemed anyone
could have thrown a pie in his face.
Detroit is a city that leads the nation in police abuse. With the
largest population of Arabic speakers outside the Middle East and a
major international border crossing, the city has experienced profiling,
detentions, and other crushing effects of Ashcroft's policies. This is
on top of Detroit's failing infrastructure; the city has shut off the
water to thousands of people who can't pay their bills. On August 14th,
when the power went out, millions of people around Detroit were without
electricity or water for days and emergency services were totally under
prepared.
The nation's top cop didn't mention any of this on the Detroit stop of
his tour, only his love for President Bush and the law enforcement
community.
The emperor wears no clothes and he doesn't dare speak in public.
Eartha Melzer is a freelance journalist and filmmaker. She lives
in Northern Michigan.
© 2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Right To Read
Librarians, booksellers take on feds
over Patriot Act provisions.
By Dean Schaber
ABCNews Online
24 April 2003
http://www.mwaw.org/article.php?sid=2649
A visit to the library hardly seems like an act that would get you in
trouble, but some librarians are warning patrons that they could be
putting themselves at risk by what they read.
At public libraries in Skokie, Ill., and Killington, Vt., for example,
there are signs warning that the government could demand access to
patrons' reading records and the library could not refuse.
At other libraries, such as in Santa Cruz, Calif., and Spokane, Wash.,
records of who checked out what books are being purged from computers as
soon as books are returned, so if federal agents ask for information,
there will simply be none to give.
Some booksellers, too, are purging their computer files of anything that
could be used as evidence of what their customers are buying.
The threat, according to booksellers and librarians, comes from the
federal government and a provision of the USA Patriot Act in Section 215
that authorizes the FBI to obtain "certain business records" based on
warrants from secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts, which
under changes instituted by USA Patriot do not require that the
government show probable cause.
The law, passed by Congress less than two months after the terror
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, also makes it illegal for a business —
including libraries or bookstores — whose client records are demanded
to tell anyone about it, even the person whose purchase or borrowing
records are demanded.
Judith Krug of the American Library Association said the law not only
threatens First Amendment rights, it undermines the ability of Americ