Patriot Act used for more than anti-terror
Justice report also reveals 50 secretly detained after 9/11
Dan Eggen, Washington Post
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/05/21/MN34108.DTL


Washington -- The Justice Department has used many of the anti-terrorism powers granted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to pursue defendants for crimes unrelated to terrorism, including drug violations, credit card fraud and bank theft, according to a government accounting released Tuesday.

In a 60-page report to the House Judiciary Committee, Justice officials also confirmed for the first time that nearly 50 defendants were secretly detained as material witnesses in connection with the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. The government has not previously characterized how many defendants had been held.

The report, issued in response to questions from House Judiciary Chairman F.

James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., and ranking Democrat John Conyers Jr., D- Mich., provides new details about the federal government's domestic war on terrorism, which has largely been conducted in secret and has prompted widespread complaints from civil liberties advocates and Muslim groups.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Jamie Brown said in the report that anti- terrorism measures enacted in the wake of Sept. 11, including the USA Patriot Act and new prosecution guidelines from Attorney General John Ashcroft, have been crucial in disrupting terror plots.

"In our judgment, the government's success in preventing another catastrophic attack on the American homeland in the 20 months since Sept. 11, 2001, would have been much more difficult, if not impossibly so, without the USA Patriot Act," the report states.

In one example, federal investigators have been allowed on dozens of occasions to delay telling targets about searches or seizures of their property, according to the report. The delays have lasted as long as three months, and prosecutors have sought extensions more than 200 times.

But the report plays down the government's use of some of the most controversial new powers. For example, the report said that fewer than 10 FBI field offices have conducted investigations involving visits to mosques, and all but one were connected to criminal inquiries. Immigration authorities also have not ruled any foreign citizens deportable or inadmissible as terrorists, the report said.

Although the Patriot Act was passed in response to Sept. 11, the report shows prosecutors have used many of the legislation's new powers to pursue cases not related to terrorism. The report cites a case in which prosecutors were able to use the Patriot Act to seize stolen funds that a fugitive lawyer had stashed in bank accounts in Belize. Similar tactics have been used in cases involving drugs, credit-card fraud, theft from a bank account and kidnapping, the report shows.

Tim Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the report confirms fears that Justice and the FBI would abuse some of their new powers. "Many of these terrorism powers were actually being asked for as a way of increasing the government's authority in other areas," Edgar said.

The previously obscure material witness statute, which allows prosecutors to hold potential grand jury witnesses, has emerged as a centerpiece of the federal government's anti-terrorism strategy. The Washington Post reported in November that at least 44 witnesses had been detained under the statute, but nearly half had not been called to testify before grand juries. Some also complained of erratic contact with attorneys.

The Justice report said that all of the material witnesses detained in connection with the Sept. 11 probe had attorneys. The report does not say how many testified before grand juries and also does not indicate how many were detained in connection with terror probes not connected to Sept. 11.

©2003 San Francisco Chronicle |

...to say I told you so. I'm not crowing though. This law is a draconian and anti-Constitutional abomination.

That it is being used for purposes other than that for which it was allegedly crafted and sold is simply another instance of the dishonesty of the Bush Junta.

Support the Constitution - oppose the un-Patriot Act.

One does not fight evil with evil.

The reality of the real working system has to to brought
to common knowledge. Ignorance is strength; to the ruling
class. The true flows of power in this and other countries
must be known by the people. This represents fear.
The illusions are thin of a
leadership that bleeds us white and attempts to enslave us.
But they are many. And we are divided by petty distractions and points of value. We must realize this is more than a
concept of liberty, but human survival because they are idiots. Let me ask myself some questions.
When does comfort become self indulgence at the expense of others? Why are the madmen in charge?
Why are we different from them except in degree?

sometimes when you go fishin for bass

you catch a gar or two

this isnt the first time surveilance to catch one type of criminal

stumbled upon another type of criminal

wow
thought
crimes
wow

what say the conservleaning-shrubyeamon now?

and ya the fishin analogy is correct, but we're dealing with MASSIVE power to catch ALL types of fish, like u&me, k?

.......Fascist Emperor

John Ashcroft is a great Attorney General. He came into the job on the heels of Janet Reno who's most notworthy achievement was the capture and deportation of Elian Gonzalez.

The Patriot Act gives our law enforcement folks a bit more of a level playing field. Until it became law the criminals had the advantage.

...of the Bush Junta the un-Patriot act is contrary to the Priniciples of the U.S. Constitution which shrub faithlessly swore to uphold and defend.

One of the claims for passage of the un-Patriot Act was that it was needed to fight Terrists' and that was it's only purpose.

BULL SHIT!

The un-Patriot act was nothing less than erecting the foundation of a Fascist Police State.