A Usenet persona calling itself Nisarel wrote:

Scott Weiser wrote:

And yet not one of them can actually cite an incident where
enforcement of the Patriot Act has unlawfully infringed on
ANYONE'S civil rights.

http://communication.ucsd.edu/911/shenon.philip.html

Nice try, but the malfeasances (which is to say illegal acts) by agents of
the government are, well, illegal, and are not authorized by any law,
including the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act does not authorize such
illegalities, and so any such illegal acts are not legitimate enforcement of
the law.

Any government worker can abuse the civil rights of a citizen, but that does
not mean that the law sanctions that abuse or authorizes the employee to
engage in such abuse, it merely means that the government employee has
exceeded his authority and violated the law. Such illegal acts are not
authorized or sanctioned by the law, and the Patriot Act offers no
protection to government agents who do such things.

The story you cite makes it perfectly clear that the government takes very
seriously reports of ILLEGAL acts by government agents, and that it is
investigating them and will likely prosecute and/or sanction those
off-the-reservation employees appropriately.

So, once again, I defy you to cite a single incident where enforcement of
the Patriot Act has unlawfully infringed on anyone's civil rights.

Better luck next time...
--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser