Former President Jimmy Carter attacks the Patriot Act:

"Former President Jimmy Carter warned Americans against curtailing human rights in the name of homeland security, saying it undermines the country's credibility in nations struggling with oppressive governments.

Carter, speaking Tuesday at the Carter Center in Atlanta, said the Patriot Act, profiling of Muslims and holding suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay run counter to the principles of democracy the United States preaches to the rest of the world.

They have been held in prison without access to their families, or a lawyer, or without knowing the charges against them, Carter said. We've got hundreds of people, some of them as young as 12, captured in Afghanistan, brought to Guantanomo Bay and kept in cages for what is going on two years."

[link via Patriot Watch, the best site around for monitoring Patriot Act developments.]