Word: ashcrofts
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Attorney General John Ashcroft announced al Muhajir had been captured a month ago, and was now being transferred out of the criminal justice system and into military detention - a move that raised legal eyebrows, since al Mujahir was an American citizen, born Jose Padillo in Brooklyn, NY, and was raised in Chicago. President Bush has deemed the former gangbanger who converted to Islam after a spell in prison (and changed his name) an "enemy combatant." The reason is that al Muhajir had allegedly been trained by al-Qaeda in Pakistan to build a radiological bomb, and sent...
Nobody was arguing with that, but not everyone was applauding Thursday when Attorney General Ashcroft announced that he was rewriting the rules that govern the way FBI agents launch and conduct probes of suspected terrorists here at home. The new rules, Ashcroft said, would help the feds prevent terrorist strikes rather than deal with them after they happen. But lawmakers of both parties complained that Ashcroft had cast off a 26-year-old policy without giving them any notice. Civil libertarians cried that the FBI was trampling on privacy in the name of security. And even George W. Bush...
...EARLY DEADLINES] Field chiefs at 56 offices can now authorize a preliminary inquiry for 180 days and can okay two 90-day extensions. Most important, says an Ashcroft aide, "you don't have to have a crime to initiate a preliminary investigation...
...LAUNCHING AN INVESTIGATION] Commanders at 56 field offices can now approve the launching of investigations of groups. For field agents, this decentralization of the decision-making power in opening cases may be Ashcroft's most important change...
...Speculation over a possible al Qaeda nuclear threat has mounted since John Ashcroft announced the arrest of Abdullah Al Mujahir, a U.S. citizen and former Chicago street gang member for allegedly conspiring with al Qaeda to detonate a diry bomb inside...