No one is suggesting that our government officials are evil or have anything but the best intentions. But Americans should remember Justice Louis Brandeis' famous admonition:

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."

Few questioned the patriotism or integrity of 20th-century American leaders like Attorney General Mitchell Palmer, who jailed union leaders and other political dissidents during World War I; Joseph McCarthy, who conducted a witch hunt to protect against communism; J. Edgar Hoover, who used surveillance powers, similar to those now proposed, to spy on (and destroy) anyone who questioned the status quo, including Martin Luther King Jr.; and President Franklin Roosevelt, who imprisoned countless innocent Japanese-Americans during World War II. We now generally recognize, however, that in the zeal to protect America, these men went too far. Their actions are historical embarrassments.

Walczak, Witold J. "Perspectives: We Can Be Both Safe and Free". post-gazette.com, PG News, 15 Oct. 2001.

The powers given to the Attorney General's office by the Patriot Act allow unprecedented secrecy and lack of judicial review. Without judicial review, or for that matter, public hearings in Congress, the checks and balances are out the window.

This is a real threat, to Americans in America. It erodes the protections that were written into the Constitution. It has nothing to do with Cuba (though Ed, at the beginning of this argument, tied the two together), because, as you say, Cuba is not the US.

Regards--
Mary Anne