President Bush and his supporters often speak of the many lives that have been saved and the terrorist plots that have been thwarted because of their unconstitutional methods. Of course they can never give us any details because that would threaten “national security”.

 ·        “[Kidnapping suspected terrorists and sending them to other countries to be tortured (extraordinary rendition) has already] protected the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of American lives.”--Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), CBC News, 10/19/07

      Millions of American lives saved--Wow! That would be great, if only it were true.

      New York University’s Center on Law and Security just released a six-year study in which they “tracked 510 cases that were described as terrorism-related when arrests were made”. Of those 510 “terrorist” arrests, only 158 people were actually prosecuted for terrorism. Of those 158 prosecutions, a total of four people have been convicted of planning attacks within the United States (and that includes “the twentieth hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, who was arrested before 9/11; and the infamous “shoe bomber”, Richard Reid, who was apprehended by airline personnel). A quick check of the score finds that all the spying, prying, torture and renditions have netted us a total of two convictions.

 ·        “The vast majority of cases turn out to include no link to terrorism once they go to court… [The analysis] “suggests the presence of few, if any, prevalent terrorist threats currently within the U.S.”-- CNN, 10/15/07

     I hate to think how many billions of dollars each of those four convictions have cost American taxpayers; but America has lost something far more valuable than money. America has lost its claim to be a defender of human rights and its ability to insist on humane treatment of prisoners in other countries. Even worse, the Bush Administration and its accomplices in Congress have rendered the U.S. Constitution and our laws virtually meaningless. As long as King George can choose which of our laws he will obey and can imprison people indefinitely, without trial; America can no longer call itself a nation of laws. That is our greatest loss.

      We can’t say the Founding Fathers didn’t warn us:

 ·        “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

      Let’s hope they aren’t right about everything:

 ·        “[A] Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.”--John Adams, 1775

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