Columnist Erin Neff: Ashcroft trying to keep America from thinking

Erin Neff

Friday, Aug. 29, 2003 | 5:49 a.m.

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft trotted out his Fourth of July parade in Las Vegas last week, under a backdrop of cops and flags -- lots of them.

The only thing missing in his brief stopover during his 16-city tour was the supreme law of the land he's supposed to uphold as the nation's top cop -- the U.S. Constitution.

As Ashcroft discusses the USA Patriot Act, you only hear catchy phrases pushed forth in the post-Sept. 11 fear as a means to protect us.

The act was supposed to live up to its full name: "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism."

But in the name of protecting our liberties, the act actually threatens them by casting the widest net imaginable for terrorists -- a net that can easily sweep up law-abiding Americans who do little more than talk to a neighbor of Arabic descent.

But Ashcroft doesn't want you to think about that. He doesn't want you to think at all.

That's why he won't meet with those striving to improve the controversial measure. It's why he won't talk to reporters (save for those quick soundbites he afforded television cameras). And it's why he's able to know which books you've borrowed from the library.

God help you if you've borrowed "The Anarchist Cookbook" after renting "Bowling for Columbine" to see how Michael Moore's interview with a guy who had become No. 2 on his school's "threat" list for potential trouble-makers got there.

The overbroad law, which has been opposed by more than 100 communities nationwide, should spur discussion and dialogue about how it can be changed to protect liberties and public safety.

But Ashcroft didn't want to discuss the controversy surrounding the Patriot Act during his visit here, he only wanted to ram its unpatriotic propaganda down our throats.

After reciting five pages of rah-rah pablum about the Patriot Act, Ashcroft literally had no time to discuss any controversies.

"To address all of the issues surrounding the Patriot Act would require more time than you or I have," Ashcroft told the crowd at the federal building in his address titled "Preserving Life and Liberty."

Later, while reading a laundry list of anti-terror achievements, Ashcroft said: "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in countries around the world."

Then, affecting the tenor of the man who does the voiceovers for movie trailers he added: "Many more have met a different fate."

Instead Ashcroft channeled President Bush: "Make no mistake: Our strategy and tactics are working. Our tools are effective. We are winning the war on terror."

Ashcroft wants you to think we're winning the war on terror with the help of the Patriot Act the same way the Bush administration wants Americans to think that pesky little resistance and the 280-and-counting American lives in Iraq was expected.

It's little wonder that Ashcroft wants to protect his pet law. Under the Patriot Act, Ashcroft has the power to demand anyone's banking and credit records, regardless of whether you're suspected of terrorism.

The broad definition of terrorist under the act could sweep in groups as diverse as Greenpeace and Operation Rescue as domestic terrorists. God help if you ever sent any group a check, or if you're a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ashcroft doesn't want you to think about the hundreds of immigrants who were imprisoned after Sept. 11 -- immigrants who had not committed any crime, but who nonetheless were jailed without being able to call their families or an attorney.

He doesn't want you to think about the latitude the act gives federal agents, including the right to tap phones without court orders and without probable cause.

Ashcroft doesn't want you to think, because anyone who does think about the hundreds of pages of the Patriot Act would clearly question how it can exist in concert with the constitution.