As the groundswell of concern about the USA PATRIOT Act (UPA) continues to mount and Ashcroft bullies and ridicules anyone who dares to criticize it, even staunch opponents of the UPA may have only a vague understanding of its provisions. (Some have said that understanding it requires you to be a constitutional law expert.) I have found it useful, and others might, to go back to this cogent analysis of USA PATRIOT Act from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), dating from Halloween, 2001, in the immediate aftermath of the bill’s enactment. Essentially, the EFF gives you a primer on electronic surveillance under U.S. law and how it is expanded, with corresponding abatement of protections for the public, under the UPA.