Hi True Patriot. Thanks for your reply and sites. I think you're right that the gag orders keep us from seeing the abuses. That simply means we are assuming them.

I have heard from several sources now (including the new dvd, "Farenhype 9/11, rubutting the Moore film) that the Brooklyn Bridge was the subject of a bunch of Arab "chatter". The Patriot Act allowed the intelligence and police communities to work together and get a warrant based on this undefined chatter. When they arrested the guy, they found very specific and imminent plans to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge. The problem? I don't know if it's true or simply an urban legend.

My guess is that while abuses are perhaps quietly being covered up, we are not being told about successes, either; in order not to tip their hands to terrorists.

In my own experience, and in documented accounts, I'm simply not seeing the kinds of wild abuses of the Patriot Act that are being tossed about. I'm the chairperson of our community's Library Board, and we have never had a single request by any law enforcment agency to come in and use the Patriot Act to track people's reading patterns. Does that mean it has not happened? I don't know.

To me, both sides are scary. The idea that terrorists could plan and murder with little resistence by law enforcement is frightening to me. Like you, I feel the freedoms and privacy we have are valuable, and would not want to see those abused by power-mongering fascists.