WASHINGTON — Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, suddenly operating on the defensive, launched a campaign to shore up support for the USA Patriot Act, the terror-fighting law approved after the Sept. 11 attacks that is being assailed by civil libertarians and in Congress.
In the first of more than a dozen speeches that he is planning over the next month, Ashcroft characterized the Patriot Act as an incremental but crucial tool in helping the Justice Department root out terrorists and prevent additional attacks.
"Two years later, the evidence is clear," Ashcroft said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank. "If we knew then what we know now, we would have passed the Patriot Act six months before Sept. 11th rather than six weeks after the attacks." He said the act righted "fatal flaws" in the government's law-enforcement and intelligence apparatus that the global Al Qaeda terror network exploited to "murderous effect."
Ashcroft plans to deliver a similar message to law-enforcement personnel in more than a dozen cities in coming weeks, a spokesman said, including stops in Philadelphia and Cleveland today and in Detroit and Des Moines on Thursday. As part of the Patriot Act campaign, federal prosecutors in a number of cities are also holding town hall-style meetings to explain the workings of the act to individuals and community groups. The public-relations offensive comes as the law is being attacked as flawed. Last month, the House voted to gut a portion of the law that permits government investigators to conduct unannounced "sneak and peek" searches in terror cases. Two lawsuits have been filed recently that seek to have portions of the act declared unconstitutional.
In a lawsuit filed last month in federal court in Detroit, the ACLU has taken on a provision of the act that makes it easier for the government to gather evidence in anti-terror investigations. The suit -- on behalf of, among others, a Muslim community group that operates a mosque and a refugee center -- alleges that the provision violates the rights guaranteed under the 1st Amendment.
"This is clearly the attorney general on the defensive. He is now having to expend his energies justifying the powers he seized for himself almost two years ago," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero. "This is clearly a cleanup job. He is trying to use fear and insecurity as a way to stifle dissent and debate which is springing up.
