Sent to John Cardenas, news director at WBNS Eyewitness 10-TV, Columbus, OH.

Good afternoon, Mr. Cardenas.

I do watch whenever I get the chance.

How do you feel about investigative reporting?

A Newsday article from The Miami Herald, posted at Miami.com, goes on about the difficulties law enforcers are having in getting firm convictions for accused terrorists in the United States:
U.S. faces challenge in sleeper-cell case
By John Riley
Newsday
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/4137752.htm

The following is a response to the article, sent to me by an acquaintance. It piqued my interest, and I think it just might touch you the same way:

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Procedure, Procedure, Procedure

There isn't one.

There has to be one.

So far the Patriot Act has the police acting on tips of dubious authority, with their subsequent actions subject to legal dismissal as "fruits of the poisonous tree". If the Attorney General's office isn't going to provide training and procedure based on unassailable legal principles, then someone else is going to have to provide it.

Where is Tom Ridge [Homeland Security Advisor]?

The police are at least as jumpy as everyone else. They need a set of policies and terrorist investigation procedures to drill on, and then to drill on them.

The terrorism that local and state police in the US have had to deal with, excepting incidents like the first WTC bombing, is of the lone-crazy or home-grown-gang variety. Without training on this new animal, we will continue to have missteps and errors of a most discrediting nature.

The FBI can't be everywhere. Local and state law enforcement will have to bear the lion's share of this responsibility.

There are ways to ensure that law enforcement complies with the Constitution. The police I know want to do this. They need direction. When are they going to get it?

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Back now to me.

My concern is not so much for the Central Ohio area, but for the nation as a whole. I have no fears when I wander the streets at night, because this is my home.

What about everyone else?

The concern I hold is a real one. Let’s face it, pulling people out of their homes because they have an email addressed to them is not exactly what I would call a convicting case -- and it could happen to anyone of us.

What are the procedures for local and national law enforcers in this matter? What is there to keep them Constitutionally correct?

We had an embarrassing incident recently in Florida, which may or may not have involved more than the current accusations, but there remains the very real possibility that the “Terror Cell” captured in New York may turn into a law suit for the arrested parties. I believe the current case will be thrown out -- and rightly so -- and the arrested will then earn the opportunity to sue the government for wrongful prosecution.

I like to see my tax-dollars at work, but I also like to see production.

I see no product, but I do see errors -- which will likely end with more of my tax-dollars going to a settlement.

Thank you for your time,
Daniel Spires
WorldCom
NSI Software Technician

“History is an imperfect record, at best an approximation skewed by transient passions and by the eccentric spin of competing events. Some things small receive disproportionate attention. Some things great are lost forever.”
-- Howard Mansfield / Historian