Word: ashcrofts
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Chasing bad guys is one thing, but critics have raised hell about Ashcroft's initiative to have local police interview some 5,000 men and women in Arab-American and Muslim communities. The government has made clear all along that talking is voluntary and says the interviews afford the government a chance to enlist help from the public. "The way I put it is that this is like a crime has been committed against your next-door neighbor," says presidential counselor Karen Hughes. "This is a chance to help...
...Administration has expressed concern that if suspected terrorists face ordinary trials, confidential evidence and informants' names will be released. But there are ample procedures for keeping those under court seal, as was done in the first World Trade Center trial. Ashcroft told TIME the military tribunals are at least partly about winning the public relations war. "The people know it would be a farce to capture somebody on their way to America to perpetrate a terrorist act, read them their Miranda rights, equip them at public expense with a flamboyant defense attorney, to bring them into a trial so that...
...Bush Administration has made fumbling attempts to justify the shadow detentions. At first Ashcroft claimed that the detainees' identities were being kept secret for their own benefit--to prevent the creation of a McCarthy-style blacklist. When that explanation was widely derided, the Justice Department offered a new justification: that some of the detainees were members of "sleeper cells" and that law enforcement did not want to tell the enemy which of its agents were out of commission. "We might as well mail this list to the Osama bin Laden al-Qaeda network as to release it," Ashcroft said...
...There?s a chance, of course, says Magarian, that the government will use this new power judiciously, no one?s rights will be threatened and opposition will be virtually non-existent. After all, religion, Magarian says, echoing Ashcroft?s own statements, cannot be a special kind of shield against legitimate criminal investigations. "If you run a religious organization and the government has true probable cause to believe your group is helping terrorists, you shouldn?t be able to hold up religion to keep the government inquiry...
...While Hooper agrees with Ashcroft?s premise, he hopes the focus remains trained on terrorism rather than on one particular religion. "Obviously if there is some indication of wrongdoing, that?s one thing," he says. "But if there?s no evidence of a problem, then it?s intrusion - something no American should want to see, because you never know who could be next. People who don?t share our religion or background may figure it?s all well and good to say go after the Muslim groups or the Arab groups," Hooper says ruefully, "but what about the next round...