In his letter to the editor "Columnist fails to back up stance with concrete facts" (Nov. 10), Victor Banks sarcastically asked for someone to name any freedoms that have been lost under the Bush administration. Well, it is quite a list, but let me try to go through most of it before my 250-word limit hits.

Perhaps Mr. Banks would be surprised to know that his First Amendment right to freedom of speech has been lost in certain cases.

It is now a crime for recordkeepers to tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information for an investigation.

Or perhaps Mr. Banks would like to know that his Fourth Amendment right protecting him from unreasonable search and seizure is worthless.

The government can now go through and seize a person's effects with no probable cause if they claim it is related to a terror investigation.

If by any chance he is arrested, perhaps Mr. Banks would like due process and a speedy trial as guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth amendments?

Too bad for him that all the government has to do is declare him an "enemy combatant" and both those rights disappear.

These are not hypothetical possibilities; an American citizen has spent years in a Navy brig without being charged for any crime or access to a lawyer.

Oh, and that Eighth Amendment right that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment? Yeah, that doesn't matter if someone gets the enemy combatant label.

That lucky individual gets to experience enforced stress positions and other treatment that the rest of the world defines as torture but we Americans call "alternative interrogation techniques."

So Mr. Burns may not think that any of these freedoms mean anything, but personally I tend to think they're pretty important and I get upset when they're taken away.