Ascroft's take on the fact that the PATRIOT Act has been almost universally blasted from the left and right:
"To abandon these tools," Mr. Ashcroft said in a speech here at the start of a national tour, "would senselessly imperil American lives and American liberty, and it would ignore the lessons of Sept. 11."I don't know about the rest of you but the lessons I learned from 9-11 go something like this:
(1) More field agents are needed so that reports of young Arab men learning to fly, but not land, planes are investigated rather than being lost in the static.
(2) Well known items, such as airplanes, which have often been used by terrorists in the past should be seriously protected.
(3) That, just maybe, our agents should be allowed to work with less than squeaky-clean individuals in their pursuit of evil men.
(4) That inter-service rivalries hindered the defense of our nation.
O.K. Quick pop quiz: What does any of that have to do with the laws which now allow law enforcement to look at which books I read at the library or sneak-and-peeks at citizens' homes?
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