The Patriot Act allowed US intelligence to collect the phone records of millions of ordinary US citizens in the name of the fight against terrorism.
"The Patriot Act itself has hurt US national security and prosperity, not increased it," Karen Kwiatkowski said. "We have become more vulnerable to potential threats since 2001 partly because of the Patriot Act and its unwise spending program, and partly because of our government's reaction to 9/11 which entailed destructive and long-duration wars and occupations in the Middle East."
On Sunday, three key provisions of the US Patriot Act that made mass surveillance possible expired after US lawmakers failed to reach a compromise to renew the legislation.
"I don't think the Congress ever expected that the Patriot Act would be allowed to sunset on May 31st," Karen Kwiatkowski said. "I believe their ‘Plan B’ will be to continue funding of all agencies that were funded and created by the Act — recall — the Act established the DHS [Department of Homeland Security], and TSA [Transportation Security Administration], and created millions of government funded do-nothing jobs, as well as new bureaucratic agencies and their staffs."
The next step in the "Plan B," would be to amend the USA Freedom Act so that it prolongs most the former Patriot Act’s powers "to abuse Americans and to disregard the letter and spirit of the Constitution."
The third step will be the "vilification" of politicians who "who take the Constitution literally," such as Rand Paul, in the mainstream media, the former analyst said.
"The way to improve US security is to leave the Patriot Act sunsetted, and begin to dismantle the security state that has discovered and foiled no terrorism itself in a dozen years, at a ballooning financial and societal cost to our nation," Kwiatkowski said.
The mass surveillance practices of US government agencies were disclosed by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, in 2013.
