~snip~
With key elements of the act set to expire at the end of 2005, President Bush has urged Congress to renew the law as a valuable weapon in tracking terrorists. But liberals and some conservatives in Congress have repeatedly raised concerns about whether the law has given the federal government too much power and have urged a go-slow approach in considering whether it should be renewed in its entirety.
In the face of frequent criticism of the law, Bush administration officials have mounted an increasingly aggressive and public defense of the legislation and attacked what they regard as distortions about what it does. Mr. Comey's speech came on the same day that Attorney General John Ashcroft, in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, called the act "an indispensable tool" in fighting terrorism and said it was "often portrayed in an outright false light."
Critics challenged the Justice Department's energetic defense of the law.
"It's ironic that the same Department of Justice that has misled the public about the Patriot Act would complain that the public has been misled," said Gregory Nojeim, associate director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mr. Comey's own defense of the antiterrorism law was significant both because of his current position as the second-ranking official at the Justice Department and because of his prospects for a promotion.
~snip~
more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/politics/27patriot.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
