On March 6, 2008 it was reported in The New York Sun that:

FBI Director Robert Mueller told senators yesterday that agents improperly used a type of administrative subpoena to obtain personal data about Americans until internal reforms were enacted last year. Mr. Mueller said a forthcoming report from the Justice Department’s inspector general will find that abuses recurred in the agency’s use of national security letters in 2006, echoing similar problems to those identified in earlier audits. An internal FBI audit also found that the bureau potentially violated laws or agency rules more than 1,000 times in such cases.(see past news items)

The so-called Patriot Act gives the FBI the authority to issue national security letters to ordinary American citizens that can order them to unconditionally comply with demands for information while forbidding them to discuss the order with anyone - including family members or an attorney - without the prospect of facing jail time.

How will you feel if you get a national security letter from an abusive agent of the government – and you can’t even tell your best friend? Will you feel better knowing you said nothing while it was still legal to dissent?