With all due respect to Mr. Platfoot and his claims that the U.S Patriot Act has only been used to fight terror, he could not be more wrong if he tried. How many convictions, Mr. Platfoot? That’s what you should be asking. How many convictions have been obtained via the Patriot Act’s increased police powers? Few, if any.

I also find his claim to have read all 342 pages of the statute rather interesting. How many of those pages did he truly comprehend and understand?

As a law student, I can safely say that had I tried to read a statute of that length before starting my legal training, I would have failed miserably at reading the thing, much less understanding the elements. Perhaps Mr. Platfoot got himself a copy of the Cliffs Notes version?

If his purported claim were true, perhaps Mr. Platfoot can explain how strippers in Las Vegas are connected to the war on terror. The investigative powers granted to the Department of Justice and the FBI are being used to investigate the financial and business dealings of a Vegas strip club owner and several Nevada politicians with whom he may be connected.

Is the target of the investigation terrorism? No, and the DOJ admits that. In fact, their spokesman even asserted that federal law enforcement officials have no qualms about using the act to pursue an array of criminal investigations that have nothing to do with terrorism, such as child pornography, drug trafficking and money laundering. Subpoenas have been issued for financial records for all sorts of individuals even tangentially connected to the subjects of this investigation, yet the Feds won’t acknowledge what the investigation itself is about.

Not enough evidence for you? Try on the latest misuse of these new federal investigative powers to keep us safe from “terra.”

Drake University and its law school’s National Lawyers Guild chapter were served with subpoenas this past week, requesting any and all records about the Guild chapter’s membership, their meetings, leadership names, names of people who attended meetings, what was said at any of these meetings, who made the room reservation requests, etc.

The basis for hunting down this deadly group of “terrists” in corn country? They had the temerity to organize an anti-war protest, at which one person was arrested for assaulting a police officer. Although the investigation continues, the demands of records and other such documentation of who did what was only dropped after the public outcry over this egregious abuse of police power over students who are most likely lily-white.

Would a Muslim or other minority organization facing the same intimidation be so fortunate? Would you think twice about joining, or leading, an organization if you knew that it was probable that your name would end up in a file somewhere in terrorism division of the FBI’s headquarters?

Exactly. So don’t tell me, Mr. Platfoot, that the Patriot Act has not been used to dampen dissent or to punish political opposition.

Finally, given Mr. Platfoot’s computer science background, I’m sure he can elucidate the ramifications of Section 213 of the Patriot Act. You know, the one where the law authorizes federal law enforcement officials to “sneak and peek” to gather evidence, without having to tell you they were there. That would include installing spyware or tracking software on your computer that would send all your keystrokes to a data base collecting information about you and your activities.

The great thing, Mr. Platfoot, is that the FBI doesn’t have to notify you that they were there. All they have to do is show “reasonable cause” for investigating you, and then show that alerting you as to their presence in your home or office would hinder the investigation. So please spare me the happy, feel-good golly gee, I’ll-trust-whatever-my-government-tells-me trip, when it’s becoming increasingly clear that we went to war on falsities, and anything emanating from the administration is suspect at best and distrusted at worst. The precedent of using FBI investigative powers to harass and intimidate political opposite is certainly already developed, and the Patriot Act simply broadens those intrusive, investigative powers.

Allen L. BohnertOSU law student