I just read this LTE posted on the website of my hometown newspaper at
http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/opinion/letters.cfmReader supports Patriot ActSean Daniel Brogden, Wheelersburg,
This letter is in response to Trent Oliver’s letter printed in the July 14 edition of the Portsmouth Daily Times.
Mr. Oliver you could not be more wrong. Obviously you have swallowed whole the often repeated misinformation that the ACLU and other liberal organizations have asserted. I guess it is true that if you tell a big enough lie enough times people will believe it.
The Patriot Act allows law enforcement, when approved by senior Justice Department officials, to seek a court order, an order that must be approved by a duly appointed judge, authorizing them to secretly capture electronic conversations or library/Internet usage logs. Those court orders come with complete instructions describing the scope and duration of the conversations that may be seized. The court notifies the person or persons whose conversations have been seized after the order has expired, which only makes common sense. If you were a terrorist and the government told you beforehand that they were going to record your conversations for the next month, I would bet you wouldn’t conduct your dastardly business the same way. The object here is to catch the terrorist before they strike.
MORE ... You can read the letter in its entirety, which is signed by a retired Navy man. Frankly, not being a vet myself, I always feel a bit intimidated when someone signs an LTE noting their military service, as if I'm unqualified to respond in kind.
I'm wondering, however, how some of you vets out there might respond to this, especially this portion:
Our brave men and women are fighting in Iraq for many reasons: to secure peace in that vital area of the world, to combat terrorists where they live instead of New York or Chicago and to rid the world of a dangerous and genocidal maniac like Saddam Hussein. To denigrate their sacrifice by whining about criminal’s and terrorist’s “rights” is despicable." Sometimes I feel discouraged by such letters, too much so to muster a response.