Keeping in mind the fact that the Clinton Administration repeatedly got a pas when using the IRS to audit and harras it's enemies, is it so hard to imagine them doing the same thing with provisions like:
Section 215: Authorizes federal officials to obtain "tangible items" like business records, including those from libraries and bookstores, for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations.
"Section 215: Authorizes federal officials to obtain "tangible items" like business records, including those from libraries and bookstores, for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations."
It was previously legal to obtain those records in organized crime investigations, with a court approved warrant, and the Patriot Act extended those investigatory means to terrorism investigations with a FISA court approved warrant. In other words, before the Patriot Act it was easier to investigate the mafia than it was Al Qeuda. The same type of thing is true with many of the Patriot Act provisions.