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Posted on 10/25/2001 10:52:29 AM PDT by grimalkin

The hour new anti-terrorism legislation becomes law, Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Thursday he would direct all U.S. prosecutors and FBI offices to immediately use their expanded powers to wiretap phones, monitor Internet traffic and apprehend suspects.

Addressing the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Ashcroft said President Bush planned to sign on Friday the legislation that would greatly boost the powers of law enforcement officers in the war against terrorism.

"A new era in America's fight against terrorism is about to begin," he said. Ashcroft had proposed the legislation after the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that killed over 5,000 people.

"I will issue directives requiring law enforcement to make use of new powers in intelligence gathering, criminal procedure and immigration violations," said Ashcroft, the country's top law enforcement official.

Ashcroft defended the aggressive arrest and detention tactics used since Sept. 11. Nearly 1,000 people have been arrested or detained as part of the investigation, he said.

Ashcroft, a Republican, several times cited similar tactics used by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, a Democrat, in the early 1960s in the fight against organized crime.

Kennedy's Justice Department would arrest mobsters for "spitting on the sidewalk" if it would help the battle against organized crime, Ashcroft said, vowing to use the same tactics in the war on terrorism.

The legislation, approved by the House and expected to win approval by the Senate on Thursday, would increase the power to wiretap suspected terrorists, share intelligence information about them and track their Internet movements.

"The Department of Justice is positioned to launch a new offensive against terrorism," said Ashcroft. The Justice Department has yet to bring any criminal charges directly involving the Sept. 11 attacks or the recent anthrax-tainted letters sent through the mail that caused three deaths.

Ashcroft said investigators cannot explicitly link the anthrax incidents with the Sept. 11 hijackers.

'POISONING OUR COMMUNITIES'

"Terrorists -- people who were either involved with, associated with or are seeking to take advantage of the September 11 attacks -- are now poisoning our communities with anthrax," he said.

Ashcroft said he will direct investigators and prosecutors to begin immediately seeking court orders to intercept communications related to an expanded list of crimes.

"Communications regarding terrorist offenses such as the use of biological or chemical agents, financing acts of terrorism or materially supporting terrorism will be subject to interception by law enforcement," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the legislation, warning it still contained many provisions that could be used to violate the rights of law-abiding people.

Ashcroft said he will direct investigators to pursue aggressively terrorists on the Internet.

"New authority in the legislation permits the use of devices that capture senders and receivers addresses associated with communications on the Internet," he said.

"Law enforcement will begin immediately to seek search warrants to obtain unopened voicemail stored on a computer -- just as they traditionally have used search warrants to obtain unopened email," Ashcroft said.

He predicted the legislation also would help speed up the tracking down and apprehension of terrorists.

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