Council takes on Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

If critics of the USA Patriot Act are correct, the Fairbanks City Council may have spent more time pondering a...     Read More

The Bill of Rights wins with the Lawless team   [Fairbanks BORDC]

During this past weekend Mike Lawless, carrying a copy of the Bill of Rights in his pocket and the Fairbanks...     Read More

Proposal rebukes Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

JUNEAU—Inspired by a resolution passed by the Fairbanks City Council, Senate Minority Leader Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, is working on a...     Read More

House Takes Stand Against Patriot Act   [Santa Fe New Mexican]

By an overwhelming vote, the House on Monday passed legislation putting the state on record as opposing many provisions of...     Read More

Santa Fe Police Detain Library Patron   [American Libraries]

A St. John’s College Library visit by a former public defender was abruptly interrupted February 13 when city police officers...     Read More

Librarians try to alter Patriot Act   [San Francisco Chronicle]

Along with the usual reminders to hold the noise down and pay overdue fines, library patrons in Santa Cruz are...     Read More

Red Alert for Bill of Rights!   [The Village Voice]

The Justice Department ... seems to be running amok ... This agency right now is the biggest threat to personal...     Read More

Portland case could put to test Patriot Act   [Oregon Statesman Journal]

PORTLAND — The government’s expanded spying powers under the USA Patriot Act could face their first test in open court...     Read More

Judge Rejects Challenge to FBI Spy Powers   [U.K. Guardian Unlimited]

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The FBI does not have to explain why it applied for search warrants to bug homes...     Read More

DOJ Drafts Sweeping Expansion of the UPA   [The Center for Public Integrity]

(WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2003) -- The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed...     Read More

Ashcroft Out of Control   [The Village Voice]

Many of the new security measures proposed by our government in the name of fighting the "war on terror" are...     Read More

It was a good day for the 6th Amendment   [NorthJersey.com]

Score one for the 6th Amendment. U.S. District Judge Michael Mukasey ruled on Tuesday that the government must allow lawyers...     Read More

Supreme Court Justice Scalia Bans Media   [Common Dreams News Center]

CLEVELAND—Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has banned broadcast media from an appearance Wednesday where he will receive an award for...     Read More

Court stiff-arms privacy challenge   [Los Angeles Times]

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a preliminary challenge to the government's expanded powers to wiretap and search people...     Read More

Ashcroft: Criticism of DOJ "aiding terrorists"   [Declan McCullagh's Politech]

The Washington Post yesterday said in an editorial:  >Mr. Ashcroft may not like the criticism. But his job...     Read More

Group raises funds to send delegate to Juneau   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

A fundraising campaign began in an upstairs room at University Community Presbyterian Church Sunday when a woman whipped out a...     Read More

Ex-Intel VP Fights for Detainee   [Wired.com]

Friends of an Intel programmer who is being held in a federal prison can't help but shake their heads in...     Read More

House Judiciary Chairman Hesitant on UPA II   [FOX News]

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's plans to expand a post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism law face resistance from a powerful House Republican...     Read More

Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act   [The Washington Post]

ARCATA, Calif. — This North Coast city may look sweet -- old, low-to-the-ground buildings, town square with a bronze statue...     Read More

GOP calls for wider powers to track citizens   [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

WASHINGTON — With the war on terrorism lagging behind the war in Iraq, Republicans in Congress and the White House...     Read More

Libraries Rally Against USA Patriot Act   [FOX News]

PATERSON, N.J.—Librarians across the country are rising up against the USA Patriot Act, shredding records and making other attempts to...     Read More

Conservatives Rise for the Bill of Rights!   [The Village Voice]

A significant development in the movement to resist the Ashcroft-Bush dismembering of the Bill of Rights is the growing coalition...     Read More

Chief Architect of Patriot Act to Quit   [Los Angeles Times]

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is losing another key foot soldier in its war on terrorism. Viet Dinh, the chief...     Read More

Fighting the Patriot Act—Now It's Alaska!   [CounterPunch.org]

The Bush Administration and Attorney General John Ashcroft may have been able to pull a fast one in the wake...     Read More

Town criminalizes compliance with Patriot Act   [CNN]

ARCATA, California (AP) — More than 100 cities and one state have passed resolutions condemning the USA Patriot Act, saying...     Read More

Senate passes resolution questioning Patriot Act   [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

JUNEAU—The state Senate passed a resolution late Tuesday expressing concern over the federal USA Patriot Act, an antiterrorism measure passed...     Read More

Alaska Passes Anti-Patriot Act Resolution   [ABC News]

May 23—Alaska has joined a growing national rebellion against the USA Patriot Act, voting to oppose the massive federal anti-terrorism...     Read More

Anti-Terror Power Used Broadly

By Dan Eggen, Washington Post Staff Writer
The Washington Post (website)
5/21/2003

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 yesterday.

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. (Mich.), provides new details about the federal government's domestic war on terrorism, which has largely been conducted in secret and has prompted complaints from civil liberties advocates and Muslim groups.

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

"In our judgment, the government's success in preventing another catastrophic attack on the American homeland in the 20 months since September 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 ongoing criminal inquiries. Immigration authorities also have not ruled any foreign nationals 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 terrorist probes not connected to Sept. 11.

Close

Ashcroft Defied on City Hall Steps   [The Village Voice]

"As New Yorkers living in the city most affected by September 11, we acknowledge the need to protect our safety,...     Read More

US threatens mass expulsions   [BBC News]

More than 13,000 Arab and Muslim men in the US are facing deportation after co-operating with post-11 September anti-terror measures,...     Read More

Patriot Act of 2001 casts wide net   [The Washington Post]

Long-sought details have begun to emerge from the Justice Department on how anti-terrorist provisions of the USA Patriot Act were...     Read More

N.J. Judge Unseals Transcript In Terror Case   [The Washington Post]

PATERSON, N.J., June 24—Mohamed Atriss spent six months here in the Passaic County Jail based on accusations by county prosecutors...     Read More

Report on UPA Alleges Civil Rights Violations   [The New York Times]

WASHINGTON, July 20—A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department...     Read More

House Takes Aim at Patriot Act Secret Searches   [Reuters]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to roll back a key provision, which allows the government...     Read More

Toughen Patriot Act, attorney general says   [Anchorage Daily News]

United States Attorney General John Ashcroft told federal and local officials Monday the USA Patriot Act should be expanded, not...     Read More

War on Terrorism Increasingly Used in War on Drugs   [Drug Policy Alliance]

A Watauga County prosecutor is using a law intended to combat terrorism to fight the spread of methamphetamine laboratories in...     Read More

Justice Department Opposes "Sneak and Peek" Ban   [The Washington Post]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The U.S. Justice Department on Friday opposed a bid to ban the government from conducting secret "sneak and peek"...     Read More

A tiny town shouts "Whoa!" to Patriot Act   [The Seattle Times]

TONASKET, Okanogan County—If this is a hotbed of sedition, they're hiding it pretty well. In fact, the most suspicious group...     Read More