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Here are two "scary" excerpts are from an October 9, 2009 article entitled "Obama Versus Obama on the Patriot Act" by Leslie Harris, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology posted at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-harris/obama-versus-obama-on-the_b_315638.html

The first: "Under the Patriot Act, FBI agents may issue NSLs to obtain comprehensive financial and communications records about anyone, including people suspected of no wrongdoing and no connection to terrorists or foreign powers. To do this, the FBI merely needs to claim the information is relevant to an investigation. Anyone receiving one of these orders is prohibited by law from speaking about it to anyone else, except their attorney. The FBI issues tens of thousands of NSLs each year, most of them directed at U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents."

The second: "These expansive powers have already been abused. The Justice Department's own Inspector General (IG) issued two reports on the use of NSLs from 2003 to 2006. The IG found that the FBI issued NSLs when it had not even opened an investigation, and that the FBI retained information obtained through NSLs almost indefinitely, even when the person is not suspected of any crime. Often the information obtained with an NSL is made widely available to thousands of people in law enforcement and intelligence agencies."

A situation like this makes you wonder how "government protection" could have ever evolved in a manner which is seemingly at odds with some of the core principals which form the cornerstones of American government - like the following part of the Declaration of Independence:

"Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [i.e., securing inherent and inalienable rights, with powers derived from the consent of the governed], it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." --Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776.

The problem here, of course, is that most folks really believe they have, at least to some degree, an "inherent and inalienable" right to privacy.

Uncle Sam does not agree.

- Ed Smith, Publisher
The EHS Letter Manual