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Ashcroft wants stronger patriot act { June 6 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21414-2003Jun5.html?nav=hptoc_nhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21414-2003Jun5.html?nav=hptoc_n
Ashcroft Wants Stronger Patriot Act
Expanded Death Penalty and Bond Changes Sought
By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 6, 2003; Page A11
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told Congress yesterday that he would like to strengthen the USA Patriot Act to allow capital punishment for all terrorist acts that result in fatalities and to prevent suspects accused of terrorism from being released on bond.
Three days after the Justice Department's inspector general suggested that law enforcement agencies had mistreated hundreds of immigrant detainees taken into custody after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Ashcroft asked Congress to tighten several Patriot Act provisions, calling them "weaknesses which terrorists could exploit."
Ashcroft testified before the House Judiciary Committee, where Republicans lauded his efforts and Democrats expressed tempered concerns about whether civil liberties were being trampled in the name of national security under the 19-month-old Patriot Act, which gave Justice far-reaching new powers to gather information and crack down on terrorists.
Ashcroft acknowledged that authorities had subjected some illegal immigrants detained after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon to harsh jail conditions for long periods of time before the FBI cleared them of links to terrorism. That was a central finding of the critical report issued Monday by the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn A. Fine.
Ashcroft said he had "some sympathy" for the criticisms leveled by Fine, who found there were "significant problems" in the detention, on charges of immigration violations, of many of the 762 foreign nationals after the Sept. 11 attacks. While none has been publicly charged with terrorism, they spent an average of 80 days in jail before the FBI completed its investigation, and many went weeks before being charged with immigration violations or seeing attorneys. About515 were eventually deported.
Yesterday, Ashcroft said without elaboration that the department has obtained plea agreements, "many under seal," from individuals cooperating in terror investigations. Six of those plea agreements were reached with a group of Yemeni American men in Buffalo who admitted training at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
Ashcroft said the Justice Department policy, "for which we do not apologize," is to fully investigate the illegal immigrants who came to the attention of authorities investigating the attacks before deporting them.
"If we, God forbid, if we ever have to do this again, we hope we can clear people more quickly," he told the panel. "There is no interest whatsoever that the United States of America has in holding innocent people -- absolutely none."
He said the department's civil rights division is investigating four instances of alleged abuse of detainees identified by the inspector general. For 14 of 18 incidents noted by the IG, evidence has been deemed insufficient to bring criminal charges, he said, adding, "we do not stand for abuse."
Some Democrats, including Reps. Maxine Waters and Howard L. Berman of California, said they were troubled by the FBI's information-gathering powers. Said Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.): "It appears that the American people feel that the government is intent on prying into every nook and cranny of people's private lives, while at the same time doing all it can to block access to government information that would inform the American people about what is being done in their name."
But Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) said that with the aid of the Patriot Act, the Justice Department and the FBI have made "impressive gains" in obtaining "critical knowledge of the intentions of foreign-based terrorists, while preempting gathering terrorist threats at home." He stressed, though, that his support for the law's provisions -- which are scheduled for legislative sunset in 2005 -- "is neither perpetual nor unconditional."
The Patriot Act permits unprecedented information-sharing between law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The failure of U.S. authorities to learn of the Sept. 11 plot in advance has been blamed in part on real and perceived legal barriers at the time to the sharing of such information.
The changes under the Patriot Act have resulted in numerous criminal investigations, department officials have said, and at least one significant terrorism-related prosecution -- that of Florida professor Sami al-Arian, who is accused of aiding Palestinian suicide bombers.
One of the changes Ashcroft requested would increase penalties for certain acts of terrorism. If a terrorist caused loss of life by sabotaging a nuclear or defense facility, for example, current statutes do not carry the potential for the death penalty, department officials said. The maximum penalty now is life imprisonment.
Ashcroft also said he wants adjustments that will make it "crystal clear that those who train for and fight with a designated terrorist organization" can be charged under the statute that prohibits providing "material support" for terrorist organizations. While the department has prosecuted men in Lackawanna, N.Y., and Detroit using the material support statute, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which covers California and other Western states, has found the statute vague, and officials are concerned about bringing prosecutions there.
In addition, Ashcroft said, terrorism offenses should be added to the list of crimes for which defendants are presumed ineligible for pretrial release, along with weapons violations, organized crime and drug dealing.
Sensenbrenner complained that Ashcroft had not consulted with Congress last year when he revised the attorney general's guidelines on FBI investigations. The previous guidelines, adopted in the 1970s to curtail bureau spying on political organizations, were widely interpreted as barring agents from gathering information in public, political or religious settings, or even surfing the Internet. The new rules allow agents to go where the public can go, including into churches and mosques, even if there is no ongoing investigation.
Ashcroft said information from such visits "cannot be retained unless it relates to potential criminal or terrorist activity."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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