Michael Mukasey, chief judge of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, provides highly readable response to the hysteria surrounding the Patriot Act on todays OpinionJournal.com.

His article is required reading for anyone wishing to engage in a rational debate on the anti-terror legislation. Some highlights:

"Most of the provisions have nothing to do with the current debate, including provisions authorizing purchase of equipment for police departments and the like, and provisions tightening restrictions on money laundering, including restrictions on the export of currency, which is the lifeblood of terrorists. Recall that when Saddam Hussein was captured, he had with him $750,000 in $100 bills."

"The statute also breaks down the wall that has separated intelligence gathering from criminal investigation. It allows intelligence information to be shared with criminal investigators, and information that criminal investigators unearth to be shared with those conducting intelligence investigations. I think many people would believe this makes sense, although a series of bureaucratic decisions and a stark misreading of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for years made this impossible, and thus prevented the government from fulfilling its most basic responsibility under the Constitution: 'to provide for the common defense [and] promote the general Welfare.'"

"What difference would this make? Well, there is one documented incident involving an FBI intelligence agent on the West Coast who was trying to find two men on a watch list who he realized had entered the country. He tried to get help from the criminal investigative side of the FBI, but headquarters intervened and said that was not allowed. That happened in August 2001. The two men he was looking for were named Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. A few weeks later, on Sept. 11, they were at the controls of the airplane that struck the Pentagon."

Mr. Mukasey also lays to rest the wild accusations regarding the use of library records and discusses the "sneak and peak" warrants, which allow law enforcement to enter a residence and just take a look, without providing immediate notice to the resident.

The Patriot Act goes far to bring search and seizure law into the digital age, and the tools provided are necessary to investigate (and hopefully prevent) terrorist activity.

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