Patriot Act or Not
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IMAGE SOURCE: Image of Ashton Lundeby/ WRAL-TV
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The Patriot Act was created 45 days after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and civilians in commercial aircraft. It allows federal agents to investigate suspected acts of terrorism quickly.
WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, is reporting on one case of the Patriot Act that has a 16-year-old behind bars.
His mother, Annette Lundeby of Granville, North Carolina, believes the Patriot Act gave the federal government too much leeway in the case of her son. Ashton Lundeby, was taken into federal custody two months ago for being a suspected terrorist. FBI agents raided the Lundeby home on the evening of March 5 looking for Ashton, a tenth grader.
They presented Ms. Lundeby with a search warrant. Ashton is accused of making numerous bomb threats.
Ms. Lundeby says someone stole her son’s IP address and was making calls to look like they originated from his home.
The story is featured on Brasscheck TV.
Agents found no bomb making materials, not even a blasting cap or a wire, says his mother.
Ashton was taken to a juvenile facility in Indiana, and his mother says she’s had little access since his arrest and the family has been ripped of their right to due process.
“We have no rights under the Patriot Act even to defend him. The Patriot Act supersedes the Constitution,” Annette Lundeby tells the television station.
Responding to various media requests, the Department of Justice last week finally issued a news release about the arrest, denying that Lundeby was arrested under the Patriot Act. It says that he will be charged with sending “false information about an attempt to kill, injure or intimidate any individual or to unlawfully to damage any building through an instrument of interstate commerce. This charge is unrelated to the Patriot Act.”
The arrest reportedly stems from making bomb threats to Purdue University and other schools.
Dan Boyce, a former U.S. attorney believes the Patriot Act has gone too far here.
“It very well could be a case of overreaction where an agent has made certain assumptions about this individual and how serious this threat is,” he says.
There has been a gag order in the case and the FBI has no comment. The North Carolina Highway Patrol does confirm that it helped the FBI enter the Lundeby home.
Annette Lundeby tells WRAL, “Never in my worst nightmare did I ever think it would be my own government I’d have to protect my children from. This is the United States and I feel like I live in a third world country.”
Dan Boyce says the Patriot Act needs a system of checks and balances to make sure it is not abused. The American Civil Liberties Union adds that the government has the power to access your medical and tax records and the power to break into your home to conduct searches without providing you with information.
A hearing for Ashton Lundeby has been set for the end of May, but his mother says she is not hopeful because it’s already been changed multiple times. #