Kansas City, Mo. ? Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday defended the government’s use of the Patriot Act to fight terrorism and criticized presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry for proposing to change parts of the wide-ranging law.

Cheney, hammering on a theme presented in previous campaign visits to the state, said the law was necessary to “take the fight to the enemy.”

He told about 500 supporters at a campaign event that Kerry and others who worry that the law is potentially invasive into people’s private lives have not offered any specific examples of the law being abused.

The American Civil Liberties Union, however, denied that claim, saying it has filed two lawsuits challenging instances where, the advocacy group claims, portions of the law gave investigators greater access to personal information.

Kerry voted for the bill and praised it when it passed. Kerry’s campaign has said he wants a new Patriot Act, which is also supported by some Republicans in the Senate, that would fix provisions of the act that lawmakers view as problematic, while keeping parts that help the war on terror.

Campaign spokesman Bill Burton said claims that Kerry wanted to repeal the law were “absolutely false.”

“John Kerry thinks we should keep about 95 percent of the Patriot Act and strengthen the rest of it to make sure it’s used as an anti-terrorism tool and not to violate civil liberties,” Burton said.

While Burton said he didn’t have specific examples, he said groups ranging from the ACLU to the National Rifle Assn., as well as lawmakers from both parties, have expressed reservations about the law.

“You’re looking at something that should be reformed and not used as a political baseball bat by a desperate campaign,” he said.

The Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, expanded the government’s wiretap and other surveillance authority, removed barriers between FBI and CIA information-sharing, and provided more tools for terror finance investigations.

Cheney said that the law eliminated what he considered “double standards” that prevented anti-terrorism agents from using some of the same investigative tools used against drug dealers. He added that all of the wire taps and other search warrants provided for in the act must be approved by a judge and have been found to be constitutional.

“This good law has done nothing to diminish our liberty,” Cheney told supporters at the event. “It has helped us to defend our liberty.”

Cheney said the law has helped break up terrorist cells in Oregon, New York, North Carolina and Virginia, and has led to the arrest of 300 people on suspicion of terrorist-related activities. More than half, he said, have plead guilty or been convicted.