Random Michael Moore Deceits [#41]

patriot act abuses?

Moore then proceeds to tell the story of a local activist group called Peace Fresno (http://www.peacefresno.org/), about which he says, "Unlike the rest of us, they've received an early lesson in what the Patriot Act is all about." He tells us that the group had been infiltrated and monitored by a member of the Fresno County Sheriff's Department in 2003. Such a step certainly seems excessive and unwarranted (although Moore does not quite give us an accurate impression of this very-active protest group, which among other things has suggested that the Bush Administration staged the September 11th attacks: http://www.indybay.org/uploads/550_the_march_begins.jpg) but Moore never explains how any of this is related to the Patriot Act. And indeed, it has nothing to do with the Patriot Act. The infiltration he describes was clearly undertaken by a local sheriff's department, not any arm of the federal government, and the Patriot Act does not permit the federal government to engage in any similar activity. As the Justice Department points out (http://www.lifeandliberty.gov/subs/u_myths.htm), the language of the act limits the definition of "domestic terrorism" in ways that would never permit a group that does not violate the law and endanger others to be considered a terrorist or terrorism-related group. The language of the act is clear on this point (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ056.107.pdf) and Moore makes no effort whatsoever to provide any connection between the Peace Fresno story and the Patriot Act.

Moore then moves on to another story which also has no link to the Patriot Act. He tells us about Barry Reingold, who told some people at his gym that he thought George W. Bush was worse than Osama bin Laden. The people who heard him apparently reported him as a suspicious person to the FBI, and FBI agents then came to his home to interview him. Moore offers no explanation of what this might have to do with the Patriot Act, and no sense of what the FBI should do when people report someone as suspicious, even if the report seems weak and misguided. There is no indication that Reingold's rights were in any way violated, and although Moore does not make it clear, when Reingold told the FBI agents he did not wish to speak to them, they left and took no further action (http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc1219a01.html).

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