Letter: Civil liberties trampled upon

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 4:25 a.m.

Obviously, Attorney General John Ashcroft feels inadequate to the task ahead. The laws in current use are insufficient, and so he has asked the House and the Senate for an expansion of his authority, which would include further erosion of our civil liberties. This is a rush order, he states: "Time is of the essence."

The point is moot as he has in custody naturalized citizens without bond on the suspicion that they may have links to Osama bin Laden.

Consider how our intelligence community has failed to protect this country against the Sept. 11 attack and failed to follow through on the USS Cole warnings, the tax-paid investigations -- three years in the extensive report by former Sens. Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. This report was briefed to President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security officials and was dropped without any action taken.

When this FBI is inclined to shoot the wrong guys from time to time, lose about 400 weapons and a couple of hundred laptops, some of which contained classified information, etc., then it seems to me outrageous that Ashcroft would ask expansion when he cannot, does not, use the laws he has and that have worked well to this point.

We have an accountability problem, as well -- determine what and who went in the wrong direction before we allow this inexperienced attorney general to trample on any more constitutional liberties.

I would ask that he work a little harder with what he has, and if he still feels he's not up to it -- there's always the resignation option.

VIVIEN CARDINAL