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Ashcroft Sells the Patriot Act
From El Diario
September 10, 2003
By Claudia Zequeira
Two days before the second anniversary of the tragedy of September
11, U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft made a tour of New York
to promote the Patriot Act, a packet of laws that was introduced
after the terrorist attacks. According to some legislators of the
country and civil liberties groups, the Patriot Act takes away
many of the constitutional rights of the people.
In a discussion
at the symbolic Federal Hall, only blocks from Ground Zero, Ashcroft,
who is on a tour of 20 states on the country,
spoke before members of the police forces and the New York criminal
justice. In his message Ashcroft again reiterated that the threat
from Al Qaeda remains real and that the laws contained in the Patriot
Act are essential to combat terrorism.
“Our responsibility is to do everything we can and should
under the constitution to prevent new terrorist attacks… We
have fought with the tools necessary to protect the lives and liberties
of the American people,” Ashcroft said. He added that he
was surprised that there had not been any new attacks since September
11.
Before the Attorney General entered into the building where
the first President of the Country, George Washington, was inaugurated,
civil liberties groups organized protests in which they complained
of the wave of arbitrary arrests and indefinite detentions of civilians,
especially of non-citizens, since September 11.
“The fact that Ashcroft stopped here today is a cynical
attempt to use the anniversary of a national tragedy and evade
the critics
that have been against the Department of Justice for months,” said
Deni Frand, Executive Director of the People for the American Way,
a civil liberties group.
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Translated from Spanish by Charlotte
Triggs
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