[inquest]

I understand what you were saying, but I'm not sure if you understood me. My point is that there are certain things they were physically unable to do without the Patriot Act. No matter how much they wanted to, or how little respect they had for the law, there is no way they would have been able to prosecute someone for disclosing that one of their minions had snooped on somebody. Under the Patriot Act, they'd have had that advantage.

[infidel29]

Gotcha. They did 90% of what they wanted, the P.A. would enable that last 10%.