President Bush traveled to Buffalo today to continue his drive for an extension of provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire next year.
In what was billed by the White House as a "conversation," Mr. Bush told an audience of political supporters, firefighters and police officers: "The Patriot Act needs to be renewed and the Patriot Act needs to be enhanced. That's what we're talking about."
It was, he said, essential for "the security of our country."
April 20, 2004
President, in Buffalo, Continues Push to Extend Patriot Act
By TERENCE NEILAN
President Bush traveled to Buffalo today to continue his drive for an extension of provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire next year.
In what was billed by the White House as a "conversation," Mr. Bush told an audience of political supporters, firefighters and police officers: "The Patriot Act needs to be renewed and the Patriot Act needs to be enhanced. That's what we're talking about."
It was, he said, essential for "the security of our country."
Buffalo was chosen for Mr. Bush's appearance because federal prosecutors have tied the provisions of the act to the arrest and conviction in Buffalo last year of the group known as the Lackawanna Six, Americans of Yemeni descent who briefly attended Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.
"Those who criticize the Patriot Act must listen to those folks on the front line of defending America," the president said. "The Patriot Act defends our liberty, is what it does, under the Constitution of the United States."
He added, "I think America is now more secure, and we're working to make it more secure."
The provisions of the act set to expire include those making it easier for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to share information about suspected terrorists, expanding the use of wiretaps and search warrants and allowing the government to track who is sending e-mail to or receiving it from suspected terrorists.
Civil libertarians in particular say the act went too far in sacrificing individual rights. Even some Republicans, who generally support Mr. Bush's antiterror drive, say the act needs to be carefully reviewed.
They include Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who gained Mr. Bush's support on Monday in his own re-election campaign.
The legislation has become a hotly debated issue in Washington, and neither the House nor the Senate is scheduled to consider extending the expiring provisions at any time soon.
Among those who joined Mr. Bush today was Pete Ahearn, special agent in charge of the Buffalo field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who said that before the Patriot Act "we were fighting with one arm tied behind our back."
Later Mr. Bush said: "It's one thing to protect our embassies, and we work hard to do so. But now a threat overseas could end up being a threat to the homeland."
The Justice Department wants to significantly expand the government's ability to monitor online traffic, proposing that providers of high-speed Internet service should be forced to grant easier access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to documents and government officials.
A petition filed this week with the Federal Communications Commission also suggests that consumers should be required to foot the bill.
Law enforcement agencies have been increasingly concerned that fast-growing telephone service over the Internet could be a way for terrorists and criminals to evade surveillance. But the petition also moves beyond Internet telephony, leading several technology experts and privacy advocates yesterday to warn that many types of online communication, including instant messages and visits to Web sites, could be covered.
Easier Internet Wiretaps Sought
Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost
By Dan Eggen and Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 13, 2004; Page A01
The Justice Department wants to significantly expand the government's ability to monitor online traffic, proposing that providers of high-speed Internet service should be forced to grant easier access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to documents and government officials.
A petition filed this week with the Federal Communications Commission also suggests that consumers should be required to foot the bill.
Law enforcement agencies have been increasingly concerned that fast-growing telephone service over the Internet could be a way for terrorists and criminals to evade surveillance. But the petition also moves beyond Internet telephony, leading several technology experts and privacy advocates yesterday to warn that many types of online communication, including instant messages and visits to Web sites, could be covered.
The proposal by the Justice Department, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration could require extensive retooling of existing broadband networks and could impose significant costs, the experts said. Privacy advocates also argue that there are not enough safeguards to prevent the government from intercepting data from innocent users.
Justice Department lawyers argue in a 75-page FCC petition that Internet broadband and online telephone providers should be treated the same as traditional telephone companies, which are required by law to provide access for wiretaps and other monitoring of voice communications. The law enforcement agencies complain that many providers do not comply with existing wiretap rules and that rapidly changing technology is limiting the government's ability to track terrorists and other threats.
They are asking the FCC to curtail its usual review process to rapidly implement the proposed changes. The FBI views the petition as narrowly crafted and aimed only at making sure that terrorist and criminal suspects are not able to evade monitoring because of the type of telephone communications they use, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"Lawfully-authorized electronic surveillance is an invaluable and necessary tool for federal, state and local law enforcement in their fight against criminals, terrorists, and spies," the petition said, adding that "the importance and the urgency of this task cannot be overstated" because "electronic surveillance is being compromised today."
But privacy and technology experts said the proposal is overly broad and raises serious privacy and business concerns. James X. Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a public interest group, said the FBI is attempting to dictate how the Internet should be engineered to permit whatever level of surveillance law enforcement deems necessary.
"The breadth of what they are asking for is a little breathtaking," Dempsey said. "The question is, how deeply should the government be able to control the design of the Internet? . . . If you want to bring the economy to a halt, put the FBI in charge of deploying new Internet and communications services."
Jeffrey Citron, chief executive of Internet phone provider Vonage Inc., said the FBI is overreaching. He said that he and other providers cooperate fully with law enforcement, and that if the FBI has ongoing concerns, it should strive to change the law governing wiretaps.
The FCC is in the midst of a wide-ranging review of how to regulate the fledgling Internet telephone industry. Chairman Michael K. Powell, responding to complaints from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, said last month that the FCC will also pursue a separate review of wiretapping rules.
The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), enacted in 1994, required telecommunications companies to rewire their networks so police could have access for wiretaps and other surveillance measures. But law enforcement officials and privacy advocates have argued fiercely in recent years about whether, and to what extent, the law should apply to such newer-generation technologies as Internet telephone and broadband services.
The Justice proposal asserts that "CALEA was intended to protect the capacity of law enforcement to carry out authorized surveillance in the face of technological change, and CALEA contains no exemption for telephony services provided through broadband access."
Stewart Baker, a Washington lawyer and former general counsel at the National Security Agency, said the petition ignores the intent and letter of the CALEA law, which specifically exempts "persons or entities insofar as they are engaged in providing information services." The Justice Department and FBI argue that Congress nine years ago had in mind simple data-storage services, and did not envision the kind of Internet-based communications technologies available today.
The problem the FBI faces is that it cannot identify and break down information that travels as packets of data over the Internet. Phone calls placed over the Internet are changed from voice signals into data packets that look much like other data packets that contain e-mail or instructions for browsing the Internet.
CALEA does not require telecommunications providers to break down and identify which is which, or to decode data that might be encrypted. The FBI wants Internet providers to be forced to do so, experts said.
Justice and FBI lawyers also asked the FCC to "permit carriers to have the option to recover some or all of their CALEA implementation costs from their customers." The petition argues that the actual costs to individual customers would be minimal, although no estimates are provided.
Internet service providers yesterday reacted with caution. Many said they had not yet studied the FBI petition, and want to be viewed as cooperating with law enforcement whenever possible.
David Baker, vice president for public policy at Internet provider EarthLink Inc. in Atlanta, said the FBI appears to be going beyond concerns over voice communications technology on the Internet and is instead "seeking to apply CALEA to all information services."
John L. Esposito, University Professor of Religion and International Affairs, and Founding Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. A past president of the Middle East Studies Association, he is editor-in-chief of the four-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, editor of the Oxford History of Islam, and the author of numerous books, including Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality, and most recently, the Oxford Dictionary of Islam.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Esposito/esposito-con0.html
Ira Lapidus, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and the founding Chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies on the Berkeley campus. Professor Lapidus has traveled extensively across the Muslim world and written many articles and books on Islam and related subjects. His publications include Islam, Politics, and Social Movements, edited with Edmund Burke, and Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective. He is also the author of A History of Islamic Societies, which was published in 1988 and has recently been issued in a second edition.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Lapidus/lapidus-con0.html
Michael Nacht, Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Professor Nacht teaches and writes in the fields of U.S. national security and foreign policy, and on management strategies for public organizations. He was a founding coeditor of the journal International Security, and he served in the Clinton administration as Assistant Director for Strategic and Eurasian Affairs of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Dean Nacht presently serves as Chairman of the Secretary of Defense's Advisory Committee on Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Nacht/nacht-con0.html
Michael Nacht, Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Professor Nacht teaches and writes in the fields of U.S. national security and foreign policy, and on management strategies for public organizations. He was a founding coeditor of the journal International Security, and he served in the Clinton administration as Assistant Director for Strategic and Eurasian Affairs of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Dean Nacht presently serves as Chairman of the Secretary of Defense's Advisory Committee on Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Nacht/nacht-con0.html
SEATTLE - A Seattle-raised Muslim convert who aided the Taliban was sentenced to two years in prison Friday, getting a break for helping authorities with other investigations in the war on terrorism.
James Ujaama, 38, pleaded guilty last year, admitting he delivered computer equipment and a recruit to Taliban officials in Afghanistan.
With time already served behind bars, he could be free this summer.
"In the future, I will act more responsibly and make the right choices," the American-born Ujaama told U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein.
GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
SEATTLE - A Seattle-raised Muslim convert who aided the Taliban was sentenced to two years in prison Friday, getting a break for helping authorities with other investigations in the war on terrorism.
James Ujaama, 38, pleaded guilty last year, admitting he delivered computer equipment and a recruit to Taliban officials in Afghanistan.
With time already served behind bars, he could be free this summer.
"In the future, I will act more responsibly and make the right choices," the American-born Ujaama told U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein.
Ujaama was arrested in 2002 following an investigation into a Seattle mosque and was indicted on charges he conspired to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Ore. Those charges were later dropped.
He instead pleaded guilty to the aiding-terrorism charges and was offered a two-year sentence in exchange for his cooperation in terrorism investigations.
Specifically, authorities were looking for information about London cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, a suspected terrorist. Ujaama befriended him in London in the 1990s and ran al-Masri's Web site, which advocated holy war against the United States. Ujaama also admitted that at al-Masri's bidding, he escorted a man to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.
Al-Masri is wanted in Yemen for his alleged role in the 1998 kidnappings of 16 Western tourists, four of whom died in a shootout.
The judge said she was initially surprised by the light term called for in Ujaama's plea agreement. But she said she also had never seen a case where a defendant had agreed to provide such extensive cooperation.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday: "Our highest priority is to disrupt the networks of terror, and the information gained from individuals like Ujaama helps us protect innocent Americans from terrorist attacks."
Ujaama was born James Earnest Thompson in Denver. He converted to Islam in the early 1990s and became involved in the Dar-us-Salaam mosque in Seattle, whose members preached an extreme version of Islam.
He tried to travel to Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks but was unable to cross the border from Pakistan.
DES MOINES, Feb. 10 — Facing growing public pressure from civil liberties advocates, federal prosecutors on Tuesday dropped subpoenas that they issued last week ordering antiwar protesters to appear before a grand jury and ordering a university to turn over information about the protesters.
The protesters, who had said they feared that the unusual federal inquiry was intended to silence and scare people who disagreed with government positions, declared victory.
February 11, 2004
By MONICA DAVEY
DES MOINES, Feb. 10 — Facing growing public pressure from civil liberties advocates, federal prosecutors on Tuesday dropped subpoenas that they issued last week ordering antiwar protesters to appear before a grand jury and ordering a university to turn over information about the protesters.
The protesters, who had said they feared that the unusual federal inquiry was intended to silence and scare people who disagreed with government positions, declared victory.
"We made them want to stop," Brian Terrell, executive director of the Catholic Peace Ministry here and one of four protesters who received subpoenas, told a crowd at the federal courthouse. "We're here to make them want to never let it happen again."
Representatives of the United States attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, Stephen Patrick O'Meara, declined to comment on what prompted the reversal. Mr. O'Meara's spokesman, Al Overbaugh, said he could not comment on information related to grand jury subpoenas.
On Monday, prosecutors defended their inquiry, saying it was limited to the narrow issue of whether a protester trespassed on Iowa National Guard property on Nov. 16.
A subpoena compelling Drake University to provide information about an antiwar forum on its campus on Nov. 15 was also withdrawn, as was an earlier court order that barred Drake officials from speaking publicly about the case.
David E. Maxwell, president of the private university of 5,100 students, said he was deeply relieved.
"It has been a remarkable several days," Dr. Maxwell said. "I'm still processing this."
The school received a subpoena last week that demanded a broad range of information about the sponsor of the forum on Nov. 15, the Drake chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. The subpoena included its leadership lists, annual reports and location. That subpoena was later narrowed somewhat, university officials said on Tuesday, to include the names of people at the forum and records from campus security that might describe "the content of what was discussed at the meeting."
Dr. Maxwell said the subpoenas concerned him because they threatened essential values of the university like the right to free assembly and the sense of the university as a "safe haven" for ideas, even unpopular ones.
"It raised very troubling issues for us," he said.
In the end, the president said, events played out as they should.
"From that perspective," Dr. Maxwell said, "this has shown that the system works. We felt something inappropriate was being asked of us, and in the end it was resolved the way we wanted."
Civil liberties advocates here and nationally said they had questions about the intent of the investigation and whether it might signal a broader worry for antiwar protesters here and others elsewhere. The Iowa Civil Liberties Union intends to investigate the investigation, said its executive director, R. Ben Stone.
"Despite any retreat by the Iowa U.S. Attorney," Mr. Stone said, "there remain serious questions about the scope of this particular investigation. If it was just a trespassing investigation, why seek the membership records of the National Lawyers Guild? If this was an attempt to chill protests through the aggressive policing of a run-of-the-mill crime, we've got a serious problem in America."
Twenty-one people attended a training session on nonviolent protest at the Nov. 15 antiwar forum, organizers said. On Tuesday, a far larger group, more than 100, stood outside the federal courthouse beside Mr. Terrell in bitter cold, holding a new set of protest signs that said, "Say no to political grand juries," "You can subpoena us, but you will not silence us" and "Investigate Halliburton not Iowans."
From the Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 13, 2003
When they came for Adham Hassoun, America's counterterrorism forces took no chances. Federal agents and sheriff's deputies circled his car in a quiet residential area not far from his home in Sunrise, Fla., and whisked him into custody.
"It was like a movie, with helicopters above me," Mr. Hassoun recalls in a telephone interview from Miami's Krome Detention Center. "They thought I was somebody important.... They thought they hit the jackpot."
Now, 15 months later, Hassoun has yet to be charged with a violation of any US law. Nonetheless, he remains behind bars - and fears he is about to lose everything he has ever loved and worked for during 13 years in America.
Hassoun's experience is not unlike that of other immigrants of Middle Eastern or Islamic heritage swept up in a post-Sept. 11 dragnet aimed at disabling terrorists before they strike again. It is a nationwide antiterror campaign with tactics including preventive detention, coercive interrogation, and secret deportation hearings, targeting a community of noncitizens in America now living in silent dread of a knock at the door.
The Bush administration issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation introduced in Congress that would scale back key parts of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act.
In a letter to Senate leaders, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the changes contemplated by the Security and Freedom Ensured Act, or SAFE, would "undermine our ongoing campaign to detect and prevent catastrophic terrorist attacks."
If the bill reaches President Bush's desk in its current form, Ashcroft said, "the president's senior advisers will recommend that it be vetoed."
The threat comes a week after Bush, in his State of the Union address, called for Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act before it expires in 2005. The law, passed shortly after the 2001 terror attacks, expanded the government's wiretap and other surveillance authority, removed barriers between FBI and CIA information-sharing, and provided more tools for terror finance investigations.