U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft delivered a speech Monday to Milwaukee law enforcement personnel, defending the USA PATRIOT Act as a necessary tool to fight terrorism.
Ashcroft’s stop in Milwaukee is part of a 16-city tour that began in August to promote the Patriot Act and to counter criticism about the Justice Department’s actions. Ashcroft said the goal of the tour is to let the “truth be known” about the law.
With “tough penalties, tough effective tools and widespread cooperation,” Ashcroft described the Act as an extension of crime fighting tools.
“From the war on terrorism to the battle against violent crime, our strategy is succeeding. America is more secure today than it was two years ago. America is safer today than it was two years ago. America is freer today than at any time in the history of human freedom,” Ashcroft said in his speech.
The attorney general added that the Bush Administration’s efforts with the Patriot Act and other anti-terrorism laws have proved to be successful, because “in the past two years, no major terrorist attack has been perpetrated on our soil.”
He also said the nation’s overall crime rate is at a thirty-year low. And in an effort to bring greater consistency to criminal prosecutions around the country, Ashcroft ordered federal prosecutors Monday to pursue maximum criminal charges and sentences whenever possible and to seek lesser penalties through plea bargains only in limited circumstances.
The Patriot Act has come under sharp criticisms from both Democrats and Republicans for its broad search-and-seizure provisions that some say violate basic civil liberties.
“I regret that the Administration has decided to continue what is essentially a [public relations] campaign instead of fixing the very real flaws in [the Patriot Act],” U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) said. “People have become increasingly troubled by certain provisions in the Patriot Act that may infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens while doing little to protect our country against terrorists.”
One such example is the administration’s desire to monitor the reading habits of citizens under the act. Ashcroft responded to the American Library Association’s worries by mocking and condemning them for believing the Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to know “how far you have gotten on the latest Tom Clancy novel.”
Under the Patriot Act, librarians are prohibited from telling a patron whether the FBI requested the patron’s record.
Ashcroft tried to clear up the matter in a memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, saying he decided to disclose the previously classified information to “counter the troubling amount of public distortion and misinformation” surrounding the library records section of the anti-terrorism law.
However, some politicians praise the act as an honest fight on terrorism.
“I support this Administration and believe that their efforts in the war on terrorism are saving lives every day,” Wisconsin state Sen. Robert Welch (R-Redgranite) said in response to Feingold’s criticisms.
Ashcroft received a heap of criticism for his closed-door policy on his Patriot Act tour. As was the case in Milwaukee yesterday, he addressed only law enforcement and television reporters on his nationwide tour. Officials said he would not answer questions from newspapers or other print media. The public also was not invited.
“It’s too bad that the Attorney General of the United States feels it is necessary to sneak into town to try to defend the USA Patriot Act. As more Members of Congress and the public are concerned that provisions of the Act are not keeping us any safer, but are diminishing our rights as Americans, we deserve better from Attorney General Ashcroft,” Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said in a statement.
