The debate over the re-authorization of the PATRIOT Act has been heating up over the past several weeks.  Senators are busy making overblown speeches about the nature of America.  Pundits throw factesque invective at each other.  Some, call them the security-minded, think we haven’t done enough.  Others, call them the liberty-minded, claim that increased law enforcement powers are a step too far.  The rhetoric has mostly been about values and principles, and those political conflicts are notoriously difficult to settle.

A better option is to begin with some pragmatic questions.  All can agree that there is some tradeoff between civil liberties and security.  Without taking a principled position, we can ask how much extra security we are getting for the liberties lost.  It’s one thing if the FBI takes library records and ends up preventing New York from getting nuked and quite another if it’s only for harassing teenagers who want to read The Anarchist Cookbook or Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching.  For me, that’s where it starts getting personal.

About twenty U.S. citizens and permanent residents who could plausibly be connected to anti-American terrorism have been captured in the last four years.  Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was tortured by the Saudis into confessing that he had some conversations with a now dead man about assassinating Bush.  Some members of the Lackawanna Six seem to have spent a couple weeks at a training camp before finding the whole thing too dirty and distasteful.  Lynne Stewart helped pass some information along for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.  James Ulaama and friends proved their stupidity with discussions of a possible training camp in rural Oregon.  The smart militant would of course go to Montana.  Yasser Hamdi and John Lindh were caught in Afghanistan, Hamid Hayat attended a camp in Pakistan, and Soliman Biheiri provided funds to the suspiciously named Muslim World League.  Jose Padilla has his own story, but we would need to resurrect Foucault for a proper narration.  Finally, Iyman Haris, a man described by his wife as unbalanced, has withdrawn his guilty plea for providing sleeping bags to Al-Qaeda.

That’s four years of the PATRIOT Act and other assorted intrusions on the Constitution.  That’s all.  Even if we make the doubtful assumption that all charges are true, the civil liberties of 290 million Americans are being eroded to catch a few blowhards, poseurs, and garden-variety thugs.  This isn’t the Justice League of America.  New York has not been saved.

Let’s be practical.  We should start the discussion with an agreement that the provisions do not apply to American citizens and permanent residents.  Perhaps more surveillance is appropriate for visa holders, perhaps not.  The FBI should definitely take a second look at shady characters with expired student visas for flight schools.  Regardless, narrowing the scope of the argument would make it a lot easier to resolve.  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be nearly as good for Senators needing sound bites for the evening news.

Pete DeWan