Posted on: Friday, September 28, 2001
Editorial
Liberties, minorities must still be protected
Few of us would relish walking the fine line that confronts Attorney General John Ashcroft today in his investigation of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and his efforts to prevent more such attacks.
He is restricted to the use of methods that are permitted under our Constitution to combat opponents who will plainly stop at nothing. Clearly he must order tough and effective measures; yet to suspend or usurp the rights of even a few Americans in effect concedes victory to the terrorists.
It is impossible to say, given the secrecy surrounding Ashcroft's efforts, whether he may have strayed to one side or the other of that fine line.
To one side of the line, Americans will applaud the arrest of 10 Middle Eastern men on charges of fraudulently obtaining licenses to transport hazardous materials. It is possible that this is a new terror plot headed off in its early stages.
But some would express concern that as of Wednesday, at least 352 people had been taken into custody "in connection with" the Sept. 11 attacks, and another 400 were sought. Most have been held on minor traffic or immigration complaints.
Among them was Dr. Al-Badr M.H. Al-Hazmi, a 34-year-old Saudi national studying radiology in Texas. When he was picked up on Sept. 12 and bundled off to New York, he was publicly described as a key player in the terrorist conspiracy.
He was quietly released this week. When he got home, he spoke of his forgiveness for the authorities who detained him. But, he added, he hadn't been allowed to speak to a lawyer for six days.
Were authorities erring on the side of caution, or sweeping with far too broad a brush?
Most of us are grateful that a wide net is being cast in search of crucial information. Again, Ashcroft must walk a fine line between effective anti-terrorism measures and what has come to be called ethnic profiling.
Ironically, a report in yesterday's Washington Post described a huge police manhunt that had "picked up for intensive investigation and interrogation" several people suspected of having close ties to Osama bin Laden. None of them had been arrested yet, a security official said.
"Detention is a separate thing from arrest," he explained.
What's ironic about the item is that it happened, not in America, the land of the free, but in Pakistan, which might be described as a police state.
The hundreds of detentions carried out in the United States so far nevertheless were managed under existing law. That's why members of Congress are right to question the new anti-terrorism legislation sent hastily to Capitol Hill by Ashcroft and the Bush administration.
While some of the measures are sensible and needed, others seem unconstitutional on their face. Congress must not allow the White House to rush these provisions into law.
