Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Ashcroft's 'rules' are how dictatorships start

The_Dude · 06-06-2003, 09:58 AM

and ashcroft's not done!

in today's frontpage of houston chronicle, it was like "Ashcroft seeks to expand powers
'No apologies' for detentions"

Quote:

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft asked lawmakers Thursday for wider authority to detain suspected terrorists before trials and to seek the death penalty for terror-related crimes that result in death.

Ashcroft, in his first public comments on a report from his inspector-general that criticized the Justice Department's treatment of 762 illegal immigrants after Sept. 11, said "we make no apologies" for holding suspects as long as necessary to determine whether they had links to terrorism. In the end, none of the 762 suspects were charged as terrorists.

Ashcroft held aloft what he said were copies of terrorist declarations of war against America. One quoted Nasser al-Fahd, a prominent Muslim cleric known to be sympathetic to al-Qaida, as saying it would be permissible if a bomb killed 10 million Americans.

"Al-Qaida is diminished but not destroyed," Ashcroft said during five hours of testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. He said the nation "must be vigilant. We must be unrelenting. We must not forget that al-Qaida's primary terrorist target is the United States of America."

Ashcroft told lawmakers that the authorities need still greater powers to track terrorists. The Patriot Act, as the sweeping antiterrorism law that grew out of the Sept. 11 attacks is known, has sparked official votes of protest from more than 100 communities around the country because of civil liberties concerns, but Ashcroft said that the law does not go far enough and "has several weaknesses, which terrorists could exploit undermining our defenses."

A strong proponent of capital punishment, Ashcroft said the penalties for some terrorism-related crimes should be toughened to include the death penalty. He also urged Congress to allow the authorities to detain terrorism suspects before trial without bail and to clarify what constitutes illegal "material support" of terrorists.

"We must make it crystal clear that those who train for and fight with a designated terrorist organization can be charged under the material support statutes," he said.

Ashcroft's lengthy and impassioned defense of the Justice Department's counterterrorism campaign and his push for greater authority met with strong endorsement from many, but not all, of the Republicans on the judiciary panel.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Republican chairman of the panel, said that while the Justice Department had made impressive strides in fighting terrorism, he remained concerned about the potential threat to civil liberties posed by the long reach of counterterrorism efforts.

"To my mind," Sensenbrenner said, "the purpose of the Patriot Act is to secure our liberties and not to undermine them."

Just last month, the Senate rebuffed efforts by senior Republicans to make permanent some critical provisions of the Patriot Act that are to expire in two years. The concerns raised by Sensenbrenner, and echoed in even stronger terms by virtually all the Democrats on the panel, signaled that Ashcroft may face a tough sell in seeking to broaden the Justice Department's authority to pursue terrorists.

"Some of us find that the collateral damage may be greater than it needs to be in the conduct of this war," said Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif.

Democrats said they were particularly concerned about the report released Monday by Glenn Fine, the Justice Department's inspector-general. The report found "significant problems" in the way the authorities arrested and treated hundreds of illegal immigrants as part of the Sept. 11 investigation. The report found that the authorities made little effort to distinguish real terrorist suspects from those who became ensnared by chance in the investigation. Many suspects were jailed for months, often without being formally charged or given access to lawyers, and some inmates in Brooklyn were physically and verbally abused before they were cleared of any terrorist ties, the report said.

While the report drew no conclusions about the legality of the Justice Department's actions, Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Va., suggested that the denial of the suspects' civil rights and evidence of physical assaults by Justice Department employees may have risen to the level of criminal conduct.

The congressman asked Ashcroft whether he planned to appoint an outside counsel to investigate the allegations further, but the attorney general responded, "I have no plan at this time to employ a special counsel in this matter."

Ashcroft said that the department's civil rights division has investigated 18 complaints of abuse by guards against immigrant prisoners and has found in 14 cases that there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges. Four investigations are still pending.

"We do not stand for abuse," he said.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/1939689