WASHINGTON – Freshman Republican Randy Hultgren had no problem voting against extending the Patriot Act in February. But the death of Osama bin Laden, just weeks before part of the terrorist-fighting law expires, raises new questions for the Illinois congressman.
"It hasn't changed my mind, not yet," Hultgren said this week. "I want to see that we're doing it in a careful way, that we're seeing results from it."
There's no indication that the mission to take out bin Laden relied on the Patriot Act, which was designed after the Sept. 11 attacks to find terrorists inside the U.S. But the afterglow of the operation's success shined new light on the nature of the terrorist threat nearly a decade after the attacks bin Laden inspired.
Interviews with House and Senate experts on the law, from both parties, indicate this week's developments may have marginalized any effort to tighten the Patriot Act's protections and perhaps scuttled Senate plans to hold a full week of debate on the bill.
From its inception, the law's increased surveillance powers have been criticized by both liberals and conservatives as infringements on free speech rights and protections against unwarranted searches and seizures.
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