- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
FBI on Thursday won additional powers to conduct domestic counterterrorism
surveillance at places like mosques -- changes critics say could trample
on Americans' rights and civil liberties.
-
- A quarter century after the government imposed guidelines
to curtail domestic spying, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a
complete overhaul of the rules. The new guidelines, responding to the Sept.
11 attacks, lift FBI restrictions on conducting surveillance at public
gatherings, on religious and political organizations and on surfing the
Internet.
-
- "The guidelines emphasize that the FBI must not
be deprived of using all lawful authorized methods in investigations, consistent
with the Constitution ... to pursue and prevent terrorist actions,"
Ashcroft said.
-
- FBI Director Robert Mueller, whose bureau has been under
fire for its failure to act on information that might have prevented the
deadly Sept. 11 attacks, said the changes are needed to properly fight
terrorism.
-
- "The guideline changes ... are important, they're
important steps to help remove unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles to the
effective investigation of terrorist cases," Mueller said.
-
- "These changes complement the reforms we announced
yesterday to strengthen our, the FBI's, capacity to prevent terrorism in
the wake of September 11."
-
- Under the new guidelines, undercover FBI agents will
be able to attend public gatherings or enter places -- such as mosques
-- that are open to the public. They can also search the Internet for counterterrorism
purposes. Under the previous guidelines, FBI agents had to offer evidence
of criminal activity to get approval for such surveillance.
-
- Civil liberties groups warned the changes could result
in a return to the days of domestic spying.
-
- But President Bush defended the change, saying it was
a part of necessary reforms at the FBI.
-
- "We intend to honor our Constitution and respect
the freedoms that we hold so dear," he said. "Our most important
job is to protect America. And the initiative ... will guarantee our Constitution.
And that's important for the citizens to know."
-
- RETURN TO COINTELPRO?
-
- The attorney general's guidelines on surveillance were
first imposed on the FBI in the 1970s following disclosures that the bureau
under the late J. Edgar Hoover had run a widespread domestic surveillance
program called Cointelpro.
-
- Critics said the FBI under Hoover had overstepped its
authority by using Cointelpro to spy on civil rights activists including
Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers, opponents of the Vietnam War
and others.
-
- "Apparently Attorney General Ashcroft wants to get
the FBI back in the business of spying on religious and political organizations,"
said Margaret Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. "That
alone would be unconstitutional but history suggests the FBI won't stop
at passive information gathering. We fear a return to the days of Cointelpro."
-
- The American Civil Liberties Union blasted the new guidelines
as the "latest power grab by an administration that seems determined
to undermine the bedrock values of liberty, equality and government accountability."
-
- The ACLU and other groups have opposed previous measures
implemented by Ashcroft since Sept. 11 including the creation of military
tribunals, mass detentions and the monitoring of some attorney/client communication.
-
- A senior Justice Department official rejected concerns
the sweeping changes would lead to violations of civil liberties. "We
will never return to the bad old days," he said. "As the attorney
general said, we think outside the box, not outside the Constitution."
-
- But Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on
the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, blasted the guidelines.
-
- "The administration's continued defiance of constitutional
safeguards seems to have no end in sight," Conyers said in a statement.
"This decision decimates the Fourth Amendment."
-
- The change in the guidelines are in part a response to
a memo written by Coleen Rowley, an FBI agent in Minneapolis, who complained
that tough rules and bureaucracy hampered the initial investigation of
Zacarias Moussaoui, who was later charged with conspiring in the attacks.
|
