'Star-gazing' new terrorist alibi

I can trace the outline of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper constellations in the sky, but after an incident that occurred in New Jersey last Friday, my star-gazing days are over. \nThis week, the Justice Department is hunting down star-gazers around the nation who pose a threat to our national security. \nTheir weapon of choice: laser pointers. You know, those little lights your professor uses during lectures. \nAccording to The Associated Press, federal officials charged David Banach with violations against the Patriot Act. He and his young daughter used a green laser pointer to find constellations one night when Banach "temporarily blinded" a pilot as his jet crossed the path of the laser's beam. \nAfter reporting the incident, the pilot assisted the FBI in finding the so-called "perpetrator" by flying over the area in a helicopter. Once they located Banach's residence, police surrounded his property and arrested him on the spot. He's currently out of prison on $100,000 bail. \nOfficials say any kind of "distraction" to an operator of mass transportation is a direct violation of anti-terrorism laws, and Banach's charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. \nThat's a pretty serious penalty for the violation of a pretty vague law. With the government's elastic use of the Patriot Act, even a child entering the cockpit for his "first pilot wings" pin is a potential national security threat. Even the Varsity Express bus is a form of mass transportation. If a student flashes her I.D. card to the bus driver in a "distracting" manner, she might be met at the stadium by the Gestapo. That's the patriotic way. \nOfficials took Banach's laser pointer (i.e. weapon of mass destruction) as a serious threat. The FBI administered a thorough interrogation, including a polygraph test. I suppose the interrogators assumed Banach would try to conceal his true motivations, but according to USA Today, Banach "willfully admitted his beam hit the jet." \nThe fact that it wasn't intentional hasn't stopped the FBI from continuing to pursue the laser pointer issue. Not only are they continuing to press charges against a poor star-gazer, but they have also contacted at least two Internet laser distribution companies to get background information on their customers. \nIt only makes me think they have given up on catching real terrorists, but they're still trying to "look busy" to the rest of us. \nI almost hope that is the cause of the frenzy because it's even more disturbing that they could be this paranoid about potential weapons in our local office supply stores. \nXacto knives? Staple guns? Fountain pens? \nWhy don't they do background searches on the people who own disposable cameras? The fact that my eyes are closed in almost every photograph I've ever been in proves their flashes pose just as much of a "national security" threat as a laser pointer. \nBanach is not a terrorist, and this is obviously not an appropriate use of the Patriot Act. Immediately after Sept. 11, Congress passed this legislation to help track down terrorists and protect national security. What is the point of making an example of Banach, who clearly has no intention of committing a terrorist act? Police should focus on trying to stop violence, rather than proving a point. \nDoes the FBI think terrorists will be more scared of us if they see how harsh our government is to our own citizens? \nI think the Justice Department is blind, but not from the beams of lasers -- more like blind from their own misunderstanding of the issues.