cannabisnews.com: In a Higher Profile, Ashcroft Gets Heat 





In a Higher Profile, Ashcroft Gets Heat 
Posted by FoM on November 28, 2001 at 21:22:04 PT
By Dan Eggen, Washington Post Staff Writer
Source: Washington Post
Eleven weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, an expanding coalition of lawmakers and civil liberties groups is complaining that Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's campaign against terrorism has gone too far. Senators have summoned him for grillings, and lawyers are demanding information about hundreds of immigrants ensnared in a nationwide dragnet.Yet Ashcroft, a staunch conservative whose views almost cost him the appointment as attorney general, is unbowed.
In the Bush administration's war on terrorism, Ashcroft has assumed the mantle of domestic general, vowing to use every means available to detain or deport people that he considers potential terrorists. His efforts are fueled by overwhelming public support."Our job is to protect American lives, but we don't believe that is inconsistent with honoring the American Constitution," Ashcroft said yesterday in an interview. "Those associated with terrorists, and who are involved with terrorists, should not escape incarceration. . . . We've made an aggressive effort to detain suspected terrorists and disrupt terrorist activities, and we've been thankfully able to avoid additional attacks."The higher profile marks a return to the center of controversy for Ashcroft, a former Missouri governor and U.S. senator who has long attracted notice for his views on abortion, guns and other, mostly social, issues. Ashcroft had to survive fierce Democratic opposition last January to win the post that today makes him responsible for averting another terror attack.Wounded by those confirmation hearings, Ashcroft initially sought to soften his public image and avoid major controversies. But since Sept. 11, with Americans feeling vulnerable and anxious for revenge, Ashcroft appears eager to dramatically recast his department.In the past month alone, Ashcroft has issued rules allowing the FBI to eavesdrop on privileged communications between attorneys and detainees who are suspected terrorists; ordered prosecutors to seek interviews with more than 5,000 young, mostly Middle Eastern, men visiting the United States; and advocated a system of secret military tribunals that could be used to try alleged accomplices in the Sept. 11 attacks.Ashcroft has taken pains to disavow racial profiling and to condemn hate crimes against Arab Americans. But his actions, many of them done with little public notice, have prompted increasingly sharp criticism from liberal and conservative groups already alarmed by the secretive detention effort.They have also sparked a rapidly escalating conflict between the Justice Department and Capitol Hill. Lawmakers as varied as Rep. Robert L. Barr Jr. (R-Ga.) and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) complain that Ashcroft is pursuing questionable anti-terrorism strategies without consulting Congress. Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, yesterday convened hearings focused on Ashcroft's anti-terrorism measures, and the attorney general has agreed to testify next week."I started with a blank slate with him," said Leahy, who led the opposition to Ashcroft's appointment while the GOP held the Senate majority. "I told him that myself. But, at this point, the slate's getting pretty filled up. . . . If the attorney general loses any more credibility with the Judiciary Committee, he will have a real problem on his hands."A new survey by The Washington Post and ABC News shows, however, that six in 10 people agree that suspected terrorists should be tried in special military tribunals and not in U.S. criminal courts. Three of four surveyed also agree that it should be legal for the federal government to wiretap conversations between suspected terrorists and their attorneys. An even larger majority -- 79 percent -- supports plans by federal prosecutors to interview the 5,000 young men."A crisis brings out the best in people and tells you who they are," said William P. Barr, an attorney general in the first Bush administration. "He's taking on some of the most difficult problems the department has at a time of extreme pressure. . . . He's the man in the arena."Ashcroft, who was content to reside on the political margins as a senator, has been unapologetic in his public comments and is increasingly irritated by the criticism, according to senior Justice Department and administration officials. Even as he leads the effort for sweeping new anti-terrorism authority, the attorney general and his aides say he is striving to balance traditional civil liberties with a presidential imperative to thwart new attacks."We believe we have put all the safeguards in place to protect those constitutional rights," Ashcroft said yesterday. "I can't guarantee that what we've done will avert future terrorist attacks, but I can guarantee that we have protected the Constitution."Ashcroft said the furor over many of his anti-terrorism policies has been overblown, in part because the measures sound more sweeping than they really are. One example he cited was the order allowing the monitoring of attorney-client conversations, which he said currently applies to just over a dozen prisoners and includes substantial oversight to ensure that their rights are not violated."The more you know about them, the more you support them," Ashcroft said.At times, however, the aggressive policies advocated by Ashcroft and his aides have caused dissent even within the Bush circle. In internal debates over nonimmigrant visa policy after the attacks, for example, Ashcroft favored halting entry altogether for men ages 16 to 45 from 25 Arab and Muslim countries until U.S. officials could implement better background checks, sources said. The 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 plot all entered the country with legal U.S. visas.The State Department, alarmed by the political consequences of Ashcroft's proposal, implemented a compromise plan earlier this month that imposes longer delays for background checks but still allows visas to be issued.Ashcroft is surprised by the strong opposition to some of his proposals, especially in the wake of terrorist hijackings that killed nearly 4,000 people on U.S. soil, those familiar with his views said. He frequently compares his anti-terror effort to Robert F. Kennedy's campaign against organized crime, and has likened terrorists to Nazis and the current period to World War II."There seems to be a lack of understanding that the country's at war," said one administration official. "He fully and carefully considers the measures prior to the measures being taken. But once the decision is made, he has no doubts and does not waver."Unlike his predecessor, Janet Reno, who held informal weekly news briefings and leaned heavily on career Justice Department lawyers, Ashcroft's operation is more insular and controlled. He relies heavily on a small group of trusted young political aides from his days in the Senate, rarely including outside opponents or career Justice staff members in his deliberations, sources said.When he decided last spring to reverse the Justice Department's long-standing legal opinion on the Second Amendment -- declaring that it bestowed an individual, rather than a collective, right to bear arms -- he did it in a letter to the National Rifle Association drafted by a senior adviser. Key Justice Department prosecutors, including those overseeing a Texas criminal case that went to the heart of the issue, were not consulted, sources said."The department is being run like a Senate staff. It's a small clique making decisions," said one lawyer who left the agency earlier this year. "There's a real mistrust in the career people that's palpable. They really don't respect the institution, and they don't respect the collective wisdom of the career people."But his supporters say Ashcroft merely has little patience for the old ways of doing things at a department with about 125,000 employees and agencies as varied as the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration. He has ordered major reorganizations of the FBI and the Justice Department and has issued stern lectures to top lieutenants at Justice and the FBI to refrain from continuing the long-running squabbles over jurisdiction. He defied convention by basing the massive Sept. 11 probe in Washington rather than in New York.Ashcroft also differs from some previous attorneys general in his management style. While Richard L. Thornburgh was known for exhaustively researching an issue before an internal briefing, "Ashcroft's approach is to learn by debating the issue with you," one Justice official said. He delegates wide authority to those he trusts, including criminal chief Michael Chertoff and legal policy director Viet Dinh."You have to remember that he's spent most of his adult life in executive positions, so he's comfortable with authority," said one Justice attorney who approves of Ashcroft's performance. "He's almost predisposed to taking the reins and being a leader. . . . He has a pretty good sense of where he wants to be and is not shy about going there."Ashcroft and his boss have an increasingly close professional relationship, though the two remain distant on a personal level, sources said. Ashcroft is buttoned-down and sometimes stiff; President Bush is affable and relaxed. The two meet daily at an 8 a.m. briefing to map progress in the anti-terrorism effort. Like Bush, Ashcroft runs an office that is highly centralized.Bush has given Ashcroft's team relatively wide berth in setting policies, officials said, with one overarching imperative. "Never let this happen again," Bush told Ashcroft after Sept. 11, sources said."He's had a couple of different roles he's been asked to play by the administration," one Justice official said. "After the attacks happened, there was a focus on the investigation, on what happened. Very quickly, that became a focus on prevention, with an order from the very top."In some cases, as with the administration's sweeping anti-terrorism legislation, the package was written with major input from the White House before being submitted to Congress. Other initiatives, such as the pending restructuring of the Justice Department and the original nonimmigrant visa proposal, were driven largely by Ashcroft and his top aides, sources said.One of Ashcroft's next challenges is to restructure the FBI, which had been battered before Sept. 11 by a string of scandals. Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III -- Ashcroft's former acting deputy -- worked together at FBI headquarters in the early weeks of the Sept. 11 crisis. Ashcroft still maintains office space there, a symbolic beachhead at the notoriously independent agency.The overarching goal, according to Ashcroft and his aides, is to refocus the sprawling federal law enforcement bureaucracy on thwarting terrorism, rather than solving terrorist crimes after they occur. "Our world has changed forever," Ashcroft told aides on Sept. 11.But for some critics, Ashcroft's decisions in recent weeks raise such serious questions about his views on civil liberties that some believe he has acquired more power than he should have.The Cato Institute's Roger Pilon said that "some of the means he has recommended go well beyond attention to terrorists.""What we have here is a classic example of crisis leading to leviathan," said Pilon. "I see in him a person with a greater respect for authority than for liberty, and that's what disturbs me."Note: Recasting of Justice Dept. Stirs Furor. Source: Washington Post (DC)Author: Dan Eggen, Washington Post Staff WriterPublished: Thursday, November 29, 2001; Page A01 Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.comRelated Articles & Web Site:Cato Institutehttp://www.cato.org/Ex-FBI Officials Criticize Tactics On Terrorism http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11442.shtmlFBI Rushes To Remake Its Mission http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11324.shtmlFBI Dropping Other Crime Fighting http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11209.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on November 30, 2001 at 09:57:26 PT:
But that's the point, CGW
Bush wants this dog off the leash...and for precisely the reasons you gave. To bite people...or worse.Ashcroft is a perfect foil; he's a Right Wing-nut if ever there was one. He'll serve as a lightning rod for the sparks that are public; abortion rights, gun rights, prayer in schools, etc. (And, I hope that some of you will forgive me when I say this, but picayune and trifling when you consider that our actions on South Asia still could trigger a planet-wide war that we are anything but ready for.) Nearly everyone knows the man holds prayer meetings in his offices. (And you have to wonder just how many are 'recent converts' to his brand of Christianity - and whether their wallets are any fatter now as a result of promotions for 'having the right attitude.') But he is little more than a (seemingly unknowing) front man for the very real Powers That Be. The thunder and lightning that is the trampling of Constitutional rights has had a muzzle put on it. The actions overseas are but a distraction to confuse and obfuscate what's really happening: the final consolidation of the Corporate State into codification rather than loose confederation. The very real threat of this country going absolute social fascist instead of just the korporate variety we presently 'enjoy' remains...and ironically, because of his presence.Think about it: he's a 'patriot', right? Church, apple pie, Mom and the Flag. But who is he working for? Big Oil Bush and his coterie of Big Money corporate nation-rapers. Who, if certain French reporters are correct, provoked September 11th with their ultimatums.Now, no one can accuse the man of being unpatriotic, right? So, by being where he is, he is acting to deflect the violent criticism Bush so richly deserves. The longer he stays, the more likely it will be that fascism will finally be installed in the US. Because people are looking at him, not at what's going on in the background behind him.
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on November 30, 2001 at 02:36:41 PT
bush's dog.
This is a devolopment to take great advantage of. We need a special task force of our own, to insist Bush put his dog on a leash.Ashcroft is Bush’s dog. They are confronting Ashcroft, yet should direct their questions to the owner of the dog, not the dog. The dog is off the leash and when the vicious dog is off the leash, you approach the dog owner not to control the dog, not the other way around. You don’t go up to the dog and ask why are you biting those people, will you please stop that, but rather ask the dog owner to control the mutt. Sir bush, please put your dog on a leash.
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on November 29, 2001 at 05:36:25 PT:
Showdown Looming
Should we feel better that 60% of the sheeple acquiesce with the rape of the Constitution? I doubt that 10% of them even know what the Bill of Rights is.Reportedly, a major Al Qaeda player has been captured and squirreled away to Guam. What is wrong with the World Court as a more reasonable jurisdiction? The current Scream Loudly and Apply the Big Stick Indiscriminantly Amerikan Policy reminds me of the schooyard bully. What I always say to them is, "Just because you can, does not mean that you should!"
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