A friend told me that the Patriot Act allowed Rumsfeld at one point (if it wasn’t changed) to draft computer people into serving in TWAT because of a lack the military was facing at the time. Is this true, or was hie confused?
A quick scan of the text of the Patriot Act doesn’t turn up anything supporting your friend’s claim.
I’m a civilian employee of the Department of Defense, and sort of a ‘computer person’. So I would probably be one of the first people subject to such a draft, and I’ve never heard of it.
And considering the small uproar in our ranks which resulted from the Iraqi Study Group’s recommendations that government agencies supporting the war should order their civilians to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, I would find it very hard to believe anyone would have considered it, especially at the time the Patriot Act was passed.
Huh…that’s surprising. Not because I doubt you, but he just seemed so certain of what he was saying. Thanks for the info…now I have to wonder where he got the idea…
Probably the Internet.
Let’s clarify what he means by “draft computer people into serving in TWAT”.
ISTR there are provisions in the evil act which essentially require both governmental and non-governmental organizations to engage in spying activities against citizens that heretofore would have been clearly considered unconstitutional if not downright unconscionable. Many of these provisions would fall on the IT staff to execute, such as keeping & turning over all online activity logs on demand of a partcular police agency.
In that metaphoric sense ordinary IT workers of corporate america would be “drafted” into the fight, regardless of their (or their employer’s) opinion of the legality or morality of the police action.
I suspect that is what your friend was refering to. I really doubt he was refering to some program to involuntarily remove IT staff from their present employment & press-gang them into service as a fulltime employee of some federal agency.
Or course the major difference between soldiers and civil servants is that civil servants can resign at will (though I imagine they would get a reference).
Let’s keep in mind that this is GQ. Your vague recollections are not a useful answer to this question, and there is such a huge amount of complete BS circulating about what the statute does and does not do, that I will not trust any commentary about it unless they can cite chapter and section.
I don’t mean to bash you personally, LSLGuy, it’s just that 99% of people who seem to complain about this Act have never read a word of it. I haven’t, either, and that’s why I’m interested in some real evidence for the claims that are made.
FWIW, the original Act is Public Law 107-56 and the full text can be found here. That doesn’t include the zillions of little amendments that have been passed since then.
As I recall it, his basic wording was that “Because I have computer skills, I could be made to use them for the government at their will.” He’s going for his Masters in Internet security.
How on earth did you manage a quick scan of the USA Patriot Act?
Ctrl + F, I’m guessing.
Yes, looking at passages containing ‘computer’, ‘draft’, ‘conscription’, etc. Not exhaustive, which is why I called it a quick scan, and provided the link for anyone who cared to look closer.
Ok, since there’s no way I can constructively search the internet for this, please tell me what TWAT is an acronym of?
I’m guessing The War Against Terror.
The Bigwigs actually use the term GWOT, for Global War On Terror.
What, exactly, is “serving” in TWAT, and where can I sign up? 
Oh… I had a completely different image in mind, but it was NSFW!