Washington - A day after revealing that the FBI has never used the controversial Patriot Act to review library records, Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday stepped up his attack on his critics, calling them "hysterics."

Taking aim at the American Library Association, which had warned its patrons the FBI might be reviewing their reading lists, Ashcroft lampooned librarians in a speech to law enforcement officials in Memphis.

Ashcroft accused his critics of conjuring images of FBI agents in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses "like in the X-Files" grilling in a "dull Joe Friday monotone" library users about their reading habits.

But the FBI has not sought any records at all under the often criticized Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which lowered standards and expanded the targets of national-security warrants in terrorism probes, said a secret report released late Wednesday.

"And so the charges of the hysterics are revealed for what they are: castles in the air," Ashcroft said. "Built on misrepresentation. Supported by unfounded fear. Held aloft by hysteria."

American Library Association president Carla Hayden yesterday responded, "That's a very unfortunate choice of words, and it does not accurately portray the concerns of librarians."

Librarians had only described what the FBI could actually do under the act, she said, and Ashcroft could have prevented fears and speculation by releasing the report sooner, as her group had urged.

A Justice official in May said an informal survey of FBI field offices found that agents had contacted libraries about 50 times. But he said they usually did it for a criminal investigation and showed up with a grand jury subpoena or at the library's invitation.

COMMENT: Ashcroft is a habitual lier especially now that the so called patriot act is being abused for prosecuting alleged crimes that have nothing in common with terrorism.

Under US law, citizens have the right to arrest others and bring charges against them.

Citizens also have the right to prosecute. When the state brings charges against someone, the state appoints a prosecutor. Most Americans are under the false impression that only states can do this. Private individuals have this same right. Consequently, it would be within the bounds of the law for citizens to raise money, pay for a prosecutor, arrest Ashcroft, and bring him to trial.

Even before the Sept. 11 attacks, John Ashcroft was the Hillary Clinton of the Bush administration: the figure most hated by the president's partisan opponents. Forty-two of the then 50 Democratic senators voted against Ashcroft's confirmation, an unusual level of opposition for any cabinet appointee, let alone a former Senate colleague.

Since Sept. 11, administration foes have portrayed Ashcroft as an enemy of civil liberties. They act as if he, and not overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, had enacted the USA Patriot Act, which they oppose for reasons they're unable to explain. Now, from Ashcroft's predecessor, comes an even more outrageous attack. A reader calls our attention to this report in Sunday's Miami Herald:

Former Attorney General Janet Reno criticized the White House on Saturday, describing the Bush administration as filled with "secrecy and silence."

At a panel discussion on U.S.-Islamic relations at Nova Southeastern University, Reno said Americans should know the identities of the thousands of Muslims or Arabs detained after the Sept. 11 attacks.

She compared it to the detainment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor.

"I had the privilege as attorney general to send letters of apology and checks of compensation to Japanese-Americans. When the decision was made to intern them, there was no record that they were a security threat," Reno told the audience of about 100 people. "Fifty years later, I delivered letters of apology. We have got to get it right the first time."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/6766405.htm

This is a scurrilous comparison. The internment of Japanese-Americans was a genuine injustice--one committed, lest we forget, by Democratic hero Franklin D. Roosevelt. But the Bush administration isn't detaining American citizens who have done nothing wrong; it's detaining foreign nationals who've violated immigration laws, and it is doing so on the basis of laws that long predated the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Herald quotes an audience member, Sahar Ullah: "It was nice to see someone in government outright condemn government policies." It's even nicer to see Janet Reno OUT of government.

"...At a panel discussion on U.S.-Islamic relations at Nova Southeastern University, Reno said Americans should know the identities of the thousands of Muslims or Arabs detained after the Sept. 11 attacks"

important, yes?

Maybe there'll be trading cards...