Ashcroft Announces Immigration Plan

WASHINGTON (AP) - Foreigners who give the U.S. government useful information about terrorists could be put on a fast track to American citizenship under a program announced Thursday.

Attorney General John Ashcroft offered the carrot while defending the administration's stick in the domestic war on terrorism - its decision to allow the creation of secretive military courts to try accused terrorists.

Ashcroft said the government will provide visa assistance and a ``pathway to citizenship'' for immigrants - including ``responsible'' but illegal aliens - who aid the war on terrorism.

The ``responsible cooperators program'' would defer deportation indefinitely for illegal aliens who qualify, and allow those with visa problems to enter the country.

Foreigners who ``provide information that is reliable and useful in the apprehension of terrorists or prevention of acts of terrorism'' would be eligible for the program, Ashcroft said in a memo to the FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Justice Department's criminal division.

It would be up to federal prosecutors to decide whether the information provided meets the standard, Justice Department officials said.

Ashcroft made the rounds of morning talk shows to defend the extraordinary military tribunals being added to the government's legal arsenal - a tactic some in Congress say President Bush may not have the authority to use.

The attorney general said public trials for terrorists could spill intelligence secrets, give them a propaganda tool and make the location of proceedings subject to terrorist attack.

Senators told the government's top terrorism prosecutor Wednesday that they should have been consulted before the Bush administration decided to allow the Pentagon to create the military courts.

But Michael Chertoff, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division, said Bush has the authority to create the tribunals without Congress' approval. And he defended get-tough tactics as necessary to stop ``sleeper'' terrorists secretly waiting to strike Americans.

``We face an extraordinary threat to our national security and physical safety of the American people of a character that, at least in my lifetime, we have never faced,'' Chertoff told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

Republican and Democratic committee members insisted they should not have been left out of the loop about the tribunals, which could afford less protections for defendants than civilian courts.

Chertoff also faced pressure on other tactics, such as the secret detentions of hundreds of suspects and the monitoring of jailhouse conversations between lawyers and clients. He said officials feared quiet terrorist cells may still be in operation.

The committee's Democratic chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said he was concerned some measures may infringe on civil liberties or undercut American justice.

Lawmakers, civil rights groups and Arab-American organizations have also raised concerns about plans to question 5,000 foreign males, mostly from Middle Eastern countries, as part of the terrorism investigation.

The Justice Department issued a list of 5,000 to federal prosecutors and asked local police to help locate and question men with passports issued from 24 countries where members of Osama bin Laden's network hide out.

The plan has sparked fears in Arab-American communities of being swept up in the international terrorism dragnet that has resulted in the detention of hundreds of Middle Easterners with immigration problems.

Attorney General Ashcroft deserves support from every person that wants to save America -- and the freedom America stands for -- from ruin by terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.

The attorney general said public trials for terrorists could spill intelligence secrets, give them a propaganda tool and make the location of proceedings subject to terrorist attack. ``We're not going to hand that to the enemy,'' he said.

Thanks for the post.

Ashcroft is a eunich. He was neudered in the hearings & can't recover. The only incumbant senator that could not beat a dead man. He should resign from his position & go on tour with another loser that the pubbies adore, Newt, who yesterday supported National ID cards.

Foreigners who give the U.S. government useful information about terrorists could be put on a fast track to American citizenship under a program announced Thursday.

I think Ashcroft is doing a great job, and I agree that we should all support his efforts, but this idea sounds like a glitzy announcement for a new game show. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now, not with all the hoopla about the M.E. non-immigrant interviews. Maybe he thinks this plan will encourage their cooperation. But I don't like the idea of American citizenship being offered up as a "prize", even with federal prosecutors deciding whether or not their information meets the standard, Seems like more trouble than it's worth.

The only incumbant senator that could not beat a dead man.

Blah, blah, blah, from Digger. You know that the people of Missouri knew that a vote for Carnahan was a vote for the widow Carnahan and she won the sympathy vote, although she has burned some bridges with her no vote on confirmation of Ashcroft.

Maybe he thinks this plan will encourage their cooperation.

Remember what President Bush said, he said that he would pit the terroists against each other. This is another tool towards that goal.

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