The 37-7 vote followed an emotional debate that invoked the chilling words of Nazi leader Hermann Goering and ignored Mayor Daley's warning that the federal government needs extraordinary tools to fight terrorism.

"The Patriot Act was passed because of 9/11. When some building blows up, are you gonna go see the alderman?" said Daley, a former prosecutor.

"Terrorists don't understand civil rights. If they did, they would have never bombed the World Trade Center. ... If there's a situation [where] they say the federal government has violated civil rights, then let's hear from them. But ... let's not prejudge this law unless something has taken place."

Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) said she doesn't need to "sit around and wait until it happens" to know that the USA Patriot Act "solidifies racial profiling" and declares "open season on people of color."

"We don't have to drink the bottle that has the skull and crossbones on it ... [to know that] it's poison. In my lifetime, I saw groups castigated. We had the Black Panthers. We had the Nation of Islam. Some of us read history and don't want to go back there," Lyle said.

Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) added: "This is precisely how Hermann Goering explained Hitler's takeover of the German government as described at the Nuremberg trials. And I quote, 'The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.' It works the same way in any country and we're not gonna let it work here."

Last week, a Council committee agreed to make Chicago the largest of 200 cities to stand opposed to the Patriot Act over the objections of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald had argued that immigration provisions of the "widely misunderstood" law had yet to result in a single person being detained nationwide. He also claimed that the act had succeeded in breaking down the "frightening and irrational" bureaucratic wall that had prohibited those conducting criminal and intelligence investigations of terrorists from sharing information with each other.

His warning against repealing the act apparently carried some weight.

Before Wednesday's vote, the resolution was softened considerably. The final language urged Congress to "monitor implementation" of the act and repeal "only those sections ... that violate fundamental rights and liberties."

Seven aldermen voted against the resolution: James Balcer (11th); Edward M. Burke (14th); Ginger Rugai (19th); William Banks (36th); Tom Allen (38th); Brian Doherty (41st) and Patrick Levar (45th).

Doherty, the Council's lone Republican, denounced the resolution as an "innocuous piece of rhetoric" with only one purpose: "to embarrass" the Bush administration.