Word: ashcrofts
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...similar vein, the arrest of Padilla, for all the frightening claims that Ashcroft made for his plot, may reveal a weakness in al-Qaeda's position rather than a strength. Al-Qaeda appears to be relying on irregulars--inexperienced, unsophisticated operatives like Padilla and, for that matter, Reid--rather than the highly trained, disciplined jihadis who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks. In the view of many experts on Islamic terrorism, converts to Islam who grew up in the West sometimes lack the deep conviction of those born into the faith who grew up in its Arab heartlands...
...June 10 Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the arrest of suspected al-Qaeda associate Jose Padilla in an alleged plot to explode a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. It was only the first big development in a busy week in the war against terrorism...
...tempting to feel reassured by Padilla's story. Clearly, he is not the deadly, skilled operative Attorney General John Ashcroft seemed to be describing when he announced Padilla's arrest in a fear-inducing video hookup from Moscow last Monday. In fact, history may judge the Administration's legal treatment of Padilla--locking him up indefinitely with no plan to try him--as more alarming than Padilla himself. But since unsophisticated men can still do great harm, it was also comforting to know that U.S. intelligence agents had carefully tracked him down and picked...
...Monday morning Ashcroft held his hastily arranged press conference in Moscow. He alarmed Americans and roiled the markets by describing Padilla as a "known terrorist" pursuing an "unfolding terrorist plot"--leaving the impression that other bombers were still at large. He said, wrongly, that a dirty bomb "can cause mass death and injury." White House officials fumed at what one called Ashcroft's "grandstanding." The officials concede they approved Ashcroft's statement but complain they were given it only at the last minute--and didn't anticipate his overly dire tone...
Although Cruise and Spielberg, friends for two decades, have been developing the script since 1999, the movie turns out to be topical, a celluloid mirror of current events. Jointly financed by DreamWorks and Fox, it opens amid controversy over Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision to put a terrorism suspect in military detention. Many have noted the similarity between the movie's idea of Precrime and the legal ramifications of arresting but not charging suspected terrorists...