8/28/2003

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Terrorists: A Response to Attorney General John Ashcroft’s “Patriot Act Tour” and Website

By John W. Whitehead


In conjunction with his nationwide tour to defend the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, Attorney General John Ashcroft recently launched a new Internet website, www.lifeandliberty.gov. The website, draped in an American flag and entitled “Preserving Life and Liberty,” offers Ashcroft’s “talking points” in defense of the Act in a media-friendly format.

The site opens with the bold statement that the Patriot Act has been instrumental in foiling new terrorist attacks after 9/11:

Since its passage following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Patriot Act has played a key part—and often the leading role—in a number of successful operations to protect innocent Americans from the deadly plans of terrorists dedicated to destroying America and our way of life.

This success, says the Justice Department, has come at no real price to fundamental American freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights, for “in passing the Patriot Act, Congress provided for only modest, incremental changes in the law. Congress simply took existing legal principles and retrofitted them to preserve the lives and liberty of the American people from the challenges posed by a global terrorist network.”

But does the Justice Department’s glowing review of the Patriot Act’s track record stand up to close scrutiny? In the interest of providing an objective check to an issue charged with patriotic emotion, The Rutherford Institute offers the following point-for-point response to Attorney General Ashcroft:

Click here to read the entire document and point-for-point legal response (PDF)


Related Link:Taking Liberties in the War on Terror: The Justice Department's “Patriot Act II”


Related Link:The Rutherford Institute's Operation Eroding Freedom: Civil Liberties and the War on Terrorism