Selling patriot: propaganda from Ashcroft.

• Author: Sanchez, Julian
• Position: Citings

IN JULY, THE Department of Justice released "Report from the Field: The USA PATRIOT Act at Work," a 29-page effort to persuade its critics that the controversial PATRIOT Act, passed in 2001, is both necessary to fight terrorism and unlikely to undermine American liberties. But a close reading of the report suggests the opposite is true.

In addition to citing terrorism-related uses of the PATRIOT Act, the report celebrates the law's usefulness in catching hackers, child pornographers, kidnappers, child molesters, online seam artists, and at least one person accused of planning a "Columbine-style" school shooting. These examples reinforce the worries of many civil libertarians that law enforcement powers sold to the public as special anti-terror measures would more often be used in ordinary criminal cases.

One case, a hacker's attempt to extort money from the National Science Foundation, is dubiously described as a "cyber-terrorist threat." The report also implies that the hacker might have been able to shut down life support for scientists at the South Pole, although the FBI later made it clear that there was no such danger. National Science Foundation sources told Newsweek the PATRIOT Act was not vital to the case's resolution.

The report is...