For the week of August 27 - September 2, 2003

The delusional Ashcroft

Commentary by Pat Murphy

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So, as he hopscotches the United States to calm rising fears about the heavy-handed Patriot Act, how does Attorney General John Ashcroft reassure citizens?

He books speeches only with invited friendly audiences, avoids meetings with community groups that include critics and, as he did this week in Boise and Salt Lake City, picks law enforcement officers to listen politely and applaud.

This orchestrated road show has obvious advantages for Ashcroft.

By turning a deaf ear to dissenting voices, Ashcroft convinces himself that applause of handpicked audiences proves he’s widely supported. He returns to his Washington bunker satisfied the nation is with him.

This is basic to a delusional personality who believes he’s flawlessly correct in whatever he does. Just listen to the applause, they remind themselves.

Unfortunately for Ashcroft, Republicans are joining the chorus of critics.

The GOP-controlled House voted heavily--309 to 118--to yank funds for the Patriot Act’s odious "sneak and peak" searches of homes without informing occupants.

This follows Congress’ bipartisan repudiation of another Ashcroft black bag job--Total Information Awareness to vacuum personal data from credit card and telephone records.

Another Patriot Act power facing overhaul is Section 215, which allows Ashcroft’s agents on fishing expeditions to seize unspecified "tangible things" from Americans. As further evidence of our eroding freedoms, owners of "tangible things" can be prosecuted by Ashcroft for even revealing their property has been seized.

This sort of government bullying is what once drove Republicans crazy, but which they now seem to stomach obediently.

At least 150 communities have condemned part or all of the Patriot Act. Libraries inform patrons their book checkout records are subject to FBI seizure. Most libraries, however, destroy records to foil the FBI.

Republicans and Democrats have only themselves to blame. They approved the Patriot Act in a panic after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the East Coast. But Idaho’s First Congressional District Rep. Butch Otter was among a handful of Republicans who opposed it.

Now second thoughts are plaguing Congress. Members finally have read the law and watched Ashcroft coldly disregard the spirit of the Constitution with arrests and detentions of "suspects" without access to lawyers, without charges and without appeal.

This heavy-handedness, Ashcroft told the Boise law enforcement audience Monday, protects Americans.

Ashcroft’s idea of protection begins with the imperceptible limit on freedoms in the name of security.

His boldness knows no limits.

He’s ordered U.S. attorneys throughout the nation to keep tabs of federal judges who don’t impose tough prison sentences, a not-so-subtle hint to jurists they’re being watched by the long arm of Ashcroft.

And he’s instructed the same U.S. attorneys to lobby Congress to not water down the Patriot Act. More flexing of muscle.

How many times have other peoples in other places and at other times heard authoritarian figures say they only want to protect the masses, usually to a sea of uniforms?

In time, Americans that Ashcroft claims to "protect" may find themselves prisoners to a government Hell-bent on reducing their rights.

 

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