Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence...

Dafydd is doing the non-libertarian thing and suggesting that the Patriot Act be made permanent:

This should be a no-brainer: nobody has shown any violation of civil liberties from use of this act; the Patriot Act should simply be made permanent, all of it. Yet evidently, simplicity is not a virtue to these complex and nuanced senators. And shame on the three Republicans for aping the Left's habit of attacking the president instead of arguing their case before the Ameican people.

One of the major provisions of the Patriot Act is lack of notification. Those who are investigated under its provisions are not notified while the investigation continues, and those who are served with subpeonas as part of the investigation aren't allowed to talk about it. These provisions make it very, very difficult to show abuses of civil liberties, and impossible to claim that none have occurred simply because none have been reported.

While investigations of foreign intelligence assets need to remain highly secretive by their nature, and investigations of terrorists certainly fall under that same category, there must be effective oversight -- oversight that is not provided by a secret court rubberstamping national security letters on the basis of secret evidence. We need to do better than that.

Posted on 2005-11-26 20:47:24.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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