PATRIOT ACT

To The Editor:

The Ogdensburg Advance News published letters from Cheryll Aumell and
Kevin Doran Sunday July 11 2004. The letters refer to the Patriot act
I and II. They perceive the Patriot Act is directed at U.S. citizens.
They are absolutely correct.

Right from the beginning, Attorney General John Ashcroft had the drug
war inaugurated into the Patriot Acts.

June 2003: "We would use whatever tools are available to us to
prosecute violations of any law," Justice Department spokesman Bryan
Sierra said in the wake of his department's massive report to Congress
describing how the USA Patriot Act is being implemented.

Same with Patriot Act II, Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist
Organizations (VICTORY Act). Sept. 2003: VICTORY provides extra
penalties for drug sellers alleged to provide funding to terrorist
groups (even if they do not know that they are connected with
terrorists).

The article July 14 2004, John Ashcroft stated the Patriot Act "helped
solved crimes". But none of the crimes he mentioned were cannabis
possession.

July 8 2004 (just one day) U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints looking for
terrorist, in three different locations, charged local St. Lawrence
County residents with marijuana possession. The possession range from,
residue in a pipe to half a coffee cups worth. None was smuggled
across the border!

The voters of St. Lawrence County should be aware that Congressman
John McHugh voted against Representative Sander's amendment. That
amendment would have prevented the Patriot Act to be used by the FBI
to search any library or book-buying records without probable cause of
any crime or intent to commit a crime. Mr. McHugh also voted more
funding for the federal government to arrest medical marijuana
patients in the nine states that voters have approved the use of
medical marijuana (Farr-Rohrabacher amendment).

The Patriot Act is an extension of the war on U.S. citizens, the drug war!

Larry Seguin

Lisbon