Secret Service! Yohoo! Over here! "Bush is OUT OF CONTROL!"

[journeymom]

I'm gonna shout it from every chat room I know! (Which amounts to 2, this one and Breastfeeding.com) The Bush admin is out of control and the whole gang needs to leave come voting time.

See about half way down the page: Man Singled Out For Questioning

Andrew O'Connor is a former assistant public defender in Santa Fe, N.M., whose detention by local police led to a state legislative hearing on the USA Patriot Act.

O'Connor was sitting in the library at St. John's College last spring around 9 p.m., using a public computer to look for jobs in other cities, when he found himself surrounded by officers.

"So I'm sitting there on the Internet and all of a sudden four Santa Fe cops walk in," O'Connor said. "They told me stand up, put my hands behind my back, 'You're under arrest.' I go, 'What for? What's the charge?'"

"There's no charge," O'Connor said he was told. "You're not being arrested, you're being detained by order of the FBI."

O'Connor said he was taken in handcuffs to the Santa Fe Police Department, where he sat for more than an hour before two Secret Service agents arrived to interrogate him about his views on Israel and whether he had ever threatened President Bush. He was released after nearly an hour of questioning.

O'Connor said that even after seeking help from a senator and congressman, he has been unable to find out why he was singled out. But he suspects someone called the police either after he made comments about Bush in an Internet chat room or turned to a woman in the library and started a conversation about the pending war in Iraq.

"I said, you know, Bush is out of control," O'Connor said.

Eventually, O'Connor's siblings around the country got phone calls from the Secret Service seeking information on him, as did his former psychiatrist.

"They told my sister they'd be watching me," O'Connor said.

The Secret Service said it does not comment on individual cases or investigations. But Sam Vizzini, resident agent in charge in Albuquerque, said that "when information comes to our attention concerning a threat to the president we investigate in all cases."

[Safemommy]

Wow! I personally think Bush is becoming nutty myself...I would hate it if I couldn't express that opinion.

BUT, in defense of the FBI...I would rather they accidentally detain an innoscent person than miss a guilty one. If I had been in O'Connor's shoes...I would hope for a formal appology (so as not to affect my reputation) and let it be.

What bugs me though....if the FBI is going to go after every American who thinks Bush is wacky....they are really waisting their resources. I guess it's a fine line.

[daylily]

This is so scary! The Bush administration has insisted all along that the Patriot Act won't affect ordinary law abiding citizens, kind of like they're saying "If you're a natural born American and not a Muslim, it's all good, just keep on shopping and don't worry your pretty little heads. Don't be a terrorist and you'll be fine. Heh heh." But clearly, ordinary, harmless, law-abiding Americans *are* being watched. I am sure that my phone is being tapped. I hear all kinds of clicks and strange noises that I never used to hear a few years ago.

There's a mysterious compound on a hilltop nearby--some say it's owned by AT&T, others say it's owned by the federal government. When a local reporter called to find out if the business conducted there is *strictly* commercial, he was hung up on. I'm sure it's some sort of phone-tapping set-up.