The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an Internet-based disinformation campaign on the USA PATRIOT Act.

The new Web site plays up portions of the act which are not very controversial and downplays or completely omits other parts which have stirred serious controversy, such as the requirement for libraries and bookstores to turn over their records and keep quiet about it. It says that even with delayed notification, subjects of searches and seizures are always notified eventually, but anyone whose records were seized from, for instance, library or bookstore records may in reality never find out about it.

The site also claims to “dispel myths” about the act while carefully sidestepping the issues raised by civil liberties groups. In several cases the ACLU or other groups have raised concerns with provisions of the act, which the DOJ has dismissed out of hand, basically stating “no, we would never do that; you aren’t reading the law correctly.” If two people can read the same law and come to two different conclusions about what it says, then who the DOJ targets can change depending on who’s reading the law.

In addition, the site presents the DOJ’s fudged numbers on terrorism, which are grossly overinflated so as to not only exaggerate the threat of terrorism but also exaggerate the DOJ’s “success” in the “war on terror.” Just the publication of these numbers alone proves the disinformational nature of this Web site.

Overall the site is designed to give you the impression that the DOJ and the USA PATRIOT Act are defending liberty in the U.S., and if you only read the official version, you might even believe that. As I wrote earlier today, you should always take anything the government says with a grain of salt, do your own research and come to your own conclusions.

In the case of this blatant propaganda website, I am still of the opinion that the USA PATRIOT Act is bullshit.

We are waging a war that defends the lives of all Americans. And we wage that war each day in a way that values and protects the civil liberties and the constitutional freedoms that make our Nation so special. — Alberto Gonzales

I hope that is so, Mr. Gonzales, but I have trouble believing it, simply based on what is contained within the USA PATRIOT Act itself, and your disinformation campaign does nothing to reassure me that the government is protecting my civil liberties. In fact, now I’m more concerned than ever.