Just as an addendum,
http://www.weeklystandard.com/conten...2/935whnpm.asp
Quick quotes as summary:
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"REPORT ON U.S. Antiterrorism Law Alleges Violations of Civil Rights"--so read the headline on the July 21 front page of the New York Times...
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For example: Three-quarters of the way down Toni Locy's USA Today dispatch ("Report Outlines Rights Violations in Sept. 11 Act"), we learned that . . . well, actually, "The report does not cite any examples of alleged abuse of the powers provided by the Patriot Act." Moreover, three-quarters of the way down Susan Schmidt's Washington Post story, the best of the bunch, we saw quoted the inspector general's principal deputy, a man named Paul Martin, explaining that the report wasn't really "about" the Patriot Act at all. "This report is not an assessment of the Patriot Act as a piece of legislation," Martin said. And "[i]t doesn't examine the department's use of Patriot Act authorities," either.
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Indeed, the inspector general's office has since made clear that only a "tiny fraction" of the complaints at issue in his latest report have even the remotest connection to the exercise of law enforcement powers granted by the Patriot Act. And none of this tiny fraction is among the 34 allegations the report deems "credible...on their face." In other words: The only thing "Patriot Act-related" about the vast majority of the complaints discussed in the IG's report is the fact that it's the Patriot Act which obliges him to discuss them in the first place.
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Abuse of the Patriot Act will happen. Abuse of any law happens. It does not mean that thus, we cannot have said law because of the possibility of abuse. That is why corrective safeguards are in place. Sadly, there are a great deal (1,073 - 34, at least) of uninformed people out there who would rather blanketly blame the Patriot Act rather than actually read it and think for themselves.
By the way, m0ntyblack, one of the better retorts I have heard to , "If you didn't do anything wrong, what are you afraid of?" is "Why don't you trust me?"
-- Alvin