My Challenge to Patriot Act Opponents: Show Me the Victims! (UPDATED with news)

As a senior counsel to a congressional committee for almost three years, I planned numerous public hearings and investigations on issues affecting the housing, accounting, securities, and financial industries and the federal government agencies charged with overseeing those industries. I always looked for actual victims of egregious waste, fraud, or illegal action. And it was easy to find victims of decrepit public housing in New Orleans, victims of mortgage "flipping" schemes, and elderly investors left destitute by stockbroker fraud. We remember how millions of Americans found their pension and personal investment accounts reduced by the accounting fraud at Enron and WorldCom. Victims came out of the woodwork to offer their stories to Congress.

So what strikes me about the Patriot Act debate is that, after 4 years, the opponents can't show us actual victims of all that "abuse." You don't see the weeping and crying, the class action lawsuits, and aggrieved parties with lives shattered by the junkyard-dog tactics of overzealous prosecutors and law enforcement. They weren't at congressional oversight hearings, they aren't at the press conferences, and they aren't cited in op-eds. The DOJ Inspector General hasn't found any. We've had four years of experience, and that's long enough - where are they?

So instead of talking about "the potential for abuse," as Victor Comras posted again below, I challenge Patriot Act opponents to show me the victims. Show me the real, actual, proven, damaged, victims - the dozens, scores, hundreds, or thousands - of all that Patriot Act "abuse." No more platitudes, cliches, or claims by advocacy groups, please. EDIT: Lorenzo Vidino reminds me that Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked the ACLU this year to detail the abuses, and she concluded that "And while I understand the concerns raised by the ACLU, it does not appear that these charges rose to the level of ‘abuse’ of the Patriot Act." Makes you wonder why she is backing the filibuster, doesn't it?

UPDATE: Sen. Arlen Spector, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on the floor of the Senate this afternoon: There are no options left - the Senate either has to pass the final conference report on the Act or the 16 provisions will expire.