WASHINGTON - Lawmakers critical of the Justice Department's anti-terrorism campaign will hear directly from Attorney General John Ashcroft at Senate Judiciary Committee in early December.
"The attorney general owes the country, certainly owes the Congress, an explanation," the committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said yesterday.
Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker confirmed Ashcroft's scheduled appearance before the committee during the first week of December.
Some lawmakers have said that recent actions to fight terrorism go too far in usurping civil liberties. For example, more than 1,000 people remain incarcerated after being rounded up following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
President Bush's recent order allowing secret military tribunals to try noncitizens has drawn fire from both Democrats and Republicans, as has Justice Department approval of eavesdropping on conversations between defense lawyers and some terrorist suspects.
"We stand for a great deal in this country," Leahy said. "When we're talking about setting aside our criminal justice system for something like this, we end up looking more and more like some of the things that we are fighting against."
Sen. Richard Shelby, appearing with Leahy on NBC's "Meet the Press," noted that the Supreme Court upheld military tribunals during World War II.
"These are extraordinary times and I believe you have to have extraordinary measures," said Shelby, R-Ala. "We are in a war and I believe President Bush is on the right track here. ... There has to be justice, and this will be justice."
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said a balance is needed in fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberties.
"We are all very concerned about the spread of terrorism," Daschle said on "Fox News Sunday." "But we have to ask ourselves what the balance is, how do you do that and ensure that we don't trample on the constitutional rights that we have fought to protect for over 200 years."
Added Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.: "We want to not only appear to be just but be just in the administration of justice, whether it applies to Americans or otherwise."
Discussing military tribunals, Durbin said on CNN's "Late Edition" that the Bush administration and Ashcroft need to "spell out in more detail what the lines are, how they'll draw them and define them."
In a related matter, a Justice Department memo outlined the questions for federal investigators to ask 5,000 male foreigners, ages 18 to 33. The men come from the Middle East and other countries, and entered the United States after Jan. 1, 2000.
While the men are not suspected of any crimes, officials hope they can help with the investigation.
The Justice Department memo, first reported by the Detroit Free Press, tells investigators to ask whether the person knows anyone who has fought in a war; anyone who acted in a "surprising or inappropriate way" to the Sept. 11 attacks; anyone involved in terrorism or willing to carry out terrorist attacks; or anyone with access to guns, explosives or chemical or biological weapons such as anthrax.
Shelby rejected any assertion that the department was engaged in racial profiling of Arabs. "You've got to go where the evidence leads you," he said.
