The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the putative War on Terror have spawned innumerable challenges to our democracy, most of which we never even hear about because they're done in secret. Worse, millions of Americans have been all too willing to forego their personal rights and freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism.

So it's refreshing to see that, on occasion, someone is willing to stand up to this ongoing abuse of governmental power and actually win. The latest freedom fighter is Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, a 12-year-old  non-profit that essentially acts as an Internet library, preserving "texts, audio, moving images, software and archived web pages" in its collection. From the Washington Post:

The FBI has withdrawn a secret administrative order seeking the name, address and online activity of a patron of the Internet Archive after the San Francisco-based digital library filed suit to block the action.

It is one of only three known instances in which the FBI has backed off from such a data demand, known as a "national security letter," or NSL, which is not subject to judicial approval and whose recipient is barred from disclosing the order's existence.

NSLs are served on phone companies, Internet service providers and other electronic communications service providers, but because of the gag order provision, the public has little way to know about them. Their use soared after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, when Congress relaxed the standard for their issuance. FBI officials now issue about 50,000 such orders a year.

Let's stop right there and consider the implications. We're talking 50,000 secret orders a year, or more than 300,000 since 9/11. Does anyone seriously think there are 300,000 potential terrorists in this country? And in all but three instances, no one has any idea who is being served with these NSLs, or for what. There's a good chance that someone reading this has been the subject of such a letter, or that the organization he or she works for has been. And they don't even know. Can you say secret police?

Here's a statement from Kehle, courtesy of the CNET.com:

"The free flow of information is at the heart of every library's work. That's why Congress passed a law limiting the FBI's power to issue NSLs to America's libraries. While it's never easy standing up to the government -- particularly when I was barred from discussing it with anyone -- I knew I had to challenge something that was clearly wrong."

To me, that's real patriotism and real bravery. Kudos as well to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the court case on the Internet Archive's behalf.