[link|http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/techwrapper.jsp?PID=1051-250&CID=1051-042303A|Glenn Reynolds holds forth]

Excerpt:

The trouble is that while clamping down on information may seem "muscular" it's actually dangerous if overdone. Taking lists of hazardous-waste locations offline is probably no threat to an open society. But the Justice Department's unwillingness to release information on how it is implementing the Patriot Act is deeply troubling. Sure, there are some tactical secrets that shouldn't be released. But it's been a year and a half since the Patriot Act was passed, and information on how the rather sweeping power that it granted has been used isn't being released. As Representative James Sensenbrenner recently complained, this sort of close-to-the-vest attitude makes it rather hard to trust them.

In Carnage and Culture, his history of Western warfare, Hanson notes that criticism and complaint have been hallmarks of Western war-making for millennia, and that though they have often been taken as signs of weakness, and frequently irritated the objects of the complaining, the result of all that criticism has generally been more effective war-making. Members of Congress need to remind the Administration that although keeping military secrets is an important part of warfare, so is the kind of discussion that, ultimately, makes us stronger rather than weaker.