| OCR Text |
Show TheSalt Lake Tribune _NATION/WORLD_ Thursday, November22, Expanded Powers Raise Concerns About Ashcroft 2001 "WE WANT YOUR BUSINESS" Evenconservatives are nervous about abrupt changes BY BOB PORT NEWYORK DAILY NEWS Attorney General John Ashcroft is making sweeping Choice Of Over 1000 pence) changesin federal law enforce- Ceuna ies) Seed ene ay That's Perfect F ay SS Re ura aos ment to fight America’s war on terrorism, buthis efforts have SEARCH NO MORE. Factory direct is always ‘the best way to get exactly what you want...at the value price yetto yield a single indictment and are generating growing concern amongboth parties in youreally should pay. And you have more choices than almost anyone else canoffer, Select from 100s of styles and 1000s offabrics andleathers...plus we'll custom-create yoursofa to the inch. Bestofall, delivery is under 4 weeks. Congress that he is overstepping his authority. The changesare potentially seismic. Law enforcement Heyi BiiD, fAlewvake Nolte! agencies have been given ex- panded wiretap authority, military tribunals are being set up for someterrorism defendants and federal agents have approval to listen in on a lawyer's jailhouse phone calls, despite constitvtional limits on such eavesdropping. Police will be ableto trace email on mere suspicion — without a judge's permission — and the CIA will be able to collaborate with the FBI on domestic security issues. In a matter of weeks, Ashcroft has achieved a policy transformation unlike any in decades — partly with congressional approval and partly by Ashcroft’s or the president's order. But Ashcroft hasn’t stopped there. He has announced a “wartime reorganization” inside the Justice Department and FBI. Fighting terrorism has be- come the FBI’s new “core mission,” leaving local cops on their own to fight organized crime, solve bank robberies and track down drug traffickers. Authority over the prosecu- tion of terrorists has been plucked from New York City, where outgoing U.S. Attorney Mary. Jo White presided, and consolidated in Washington. Insteadofjust oneterrorism force in New York, AshStato declared,there will be national network of antiism task forces” report- ingto the Justice Department. A New Mission: The changes are so abrupt and rely so much on executive orders that even conservatives are expressing their concern. On Friday, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Commit- tee and a conservative, joined Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee's chairman and a liberal, to sign a curt letter to the attorney general to “suggest” that after Thanksgiving he pencil in “several hours”to chat with legislators. “The Departmentof Justice. has taken a numberofactions since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,” the letter said. “We request that you appear before the committee during the week after Thanksgiving.” The requ st was virtual subpoena. in recent weeks, Ashcruii has snubbed invitations to appear before the senators. House members report similar experiences, “Concern hasbeenrising for sometime on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol,” said David Carle, a spokesmanfor Leahy. “The concern is over the almost complete lack of consultation with congressional leaders AssociatedPressfile photo Attorney General John Ashcroft, right, talks about anti-terrorism efforts. With him are former colleagues Sen. Orrin Hatch, R- Utah,left, and Senate Minority LeaderTrent Lott, R-Miss. Co) SE SD DESIGNERS AND PUBLIC WELCOME how manyand where, the Jus- tice Departmentcan’t cr won't say. But sofar, despite all the bu- reaucratic maneuvering to centralize the war on terror in Washington, the feds have not charged anyone with a crime tied to the attacks on the World Trade Center andthe Pentagon. Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union say Ashcroft has gonetoo far, and that he is capitalizing on the national mood to establish unbridled police power. “He's basically out of control,” said Morton Halperin, chairmanof the Center for National Security Studies. “Some ofit’s acceptable. Some ofit's outrageous.” Question of Use: Ashcroft, Halperin argues, knows that the president's executive order in military tribunals envisions domestic use, and that he should know. that is unconstitutional. As the war over tribunals unfolds, Ashcroft’s changes have spread ripples of unease inside the Justice Department. Justice is planning major overhauls of old computersys- tems used in federal law enforcement. Ashcroft has ordered two new posts created in every federal prosecutor's office: a chief technologyoffi and trainingofficer, both with substantial anti-terrorism duties. Last week, White announced Bring Comfortable Wireless’ homefor the holidays! she will leave at year’s end. White successfully prosecuted the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa, in the process developing muchofthe information investigators now have about Osama Bin Laden andthe al-Qaeda organization. She will no longer be the na. tion's No. 1 prosecutor of terrorists. That authority will reside with Michael Chertoff, formerly U.S. attorney in Newark and once a top prosecutorin the U.S. attorney’s office under New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. $99!Nokia Phone White’s departure “is going to be a huge loss for the gov- ernment,” said Robert Cleary, Newark’s current U.S. attorney, a Clinton-era holdover, as is White. Heroffice would notdiscuss White's departure further, but other Justice Department sources say she was being cut out of decisions that she once ith of Noy. 23 thru Dec. 26, new customers get a Nokia phone for guided. just $29.99 after mail-in savings of $40, plus the first month Shuffling People: The FBI has not ‘been spared in the shakeup. Its top deputy director, ThomasPickard, 50, unexpectedly announcedhis retirement recently, citing family reasons. Pickard was pointman for the FBI terror and anthrax probes. “Tom Pickard added a great deal to this investigation, both investigatively and fromaninstitutional perspective,” said Lewis Schiliro, formerdirector of the FBI's New Yorkoffice. “I hope his replacementbrings as much to the table. I think the timing is goingto be difficult in terms of making the transition.” Hundreds of officers have been reassigned to track down leads involving the terrorist attacks, Many agents in the 1,100strong New York office, who have spent years building expertise in fighting organized crime or drugtrafficking, may be transferred underthe plan. Amid the upheaval, one former FBI official wondered why it’s taking so long to see terror indictments. “When you have people, in custody — and no one is charged you have to wonder, eight eckiii into it,” he said. of service is free! At this price. get one to give—and one to or congressional committees as the attorney general has taken’ one unilateral action. after anotherin the nameof the war on terrorism,” Carle said. Leahy reportedly lost his patience when Ashcrof! authorized limited wiretaps of terror suspects who phone their attorneys from behindbars. Republicans kept their reservations to themselves until last. week, when Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., rose on the Senate floorto challengethe President's and Ashcroft’s plan to use military tribunals — panels of officers who function with their own rules of evidence — to try suspected terrorists, in secretif the president chooses. “It is the Congress that has the authority to establish the parameters and the pi ings under such courts,” Specter said, “That is whatthe Constitution says. We have the authority to decide how those trials will be conducted,” Civil libertarians are preparing to sue Ashcroft under the Freedom ofInformation Act for keeping secret the names of hundreds ofdetainees corralled in the post-Sept. 11 law enforcementfrenzy. Some of the more than 1,100 detainees are still being held in jails across the nation. Exactly Ke=== 711 South 300 West 355-8000 355-2777 keep. Then, enjoy truly unlimited calling over your Cricket service area for just $34.95 a month plus tax. Talk as much as you want, whenever you want, anytime.See store for details. BUA Line ONLY 8¢ A MINUTE! cricket Another Leap Innovation™ For more information call 1-866-CRICKET orvisit us at www.cricketcommunications.com Seat 2630-A West 3500 South West Valley City, UT . ets onic 49 West 10600 South Sandy, UT 975-6766 Chiat Store: —_760.N. Main St., Suite #100 Layton, 1-866-434-9096 2275 N. University Pkwy. Provo, 377-1451 675 East 2100 South Salt Lake City, UT Also Available at Accellular * Airtime Paging & Cellular * America Wireless * BYU Bookstore * Connection Wireless * Digital Empire * Omniserve Wireless * Powerhouse Paging & Cellular * Sound Warehouse * 4CD and Cell Holiday Oil + Cellular Systems ¢ Finishline Cellular * Advantage Wireless Arrnorvons Raa. GEGCF Smithis PRAY rrediaer |
