The Senate Judiciary Committee conducted hearings Wednesday on measures taken by President Bush and the Department of Justice to monitor, apprehend and detain non-citizens suspected of being terrorists or having ties to terrorists or their organizations.
Critics of the new policies said the use of military tribunals to try suspected terrorists may be too broad or intrusive and may hinder the United States’ ability to gather information from foreign countries aiding in the war against terror. Under the presidential military order, Bush will decide who is considered a terrorist suspect detainable by the Department of Defense. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would then be responsible for trial logistics and for ensuring the suspects’ rights. Military trials are held in secret and require a two-thirds vote for conviction.
Critics also opposed Justice Department measures that extend the government’s authority to tap phones and other modes of electronic communication and allow conversations between suspected terrorists and their lawyers to be monitored.
“Rather than respect the checks and balances that make up our constitutional framework, the executive branch has chosen to cut out judicial review in monitoring attorney-client conversations and to cut out Congress in determining the appropriate tribunal and procedures to try terrorists,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Va., said. “The three institutional pillars of our democratic government are stronger guarantees of our freedom than any one branch standing alone.”
The Justice Department and Attorney General John Ashcroft have come under fire for refusing to produce a complete list of the detainees. The Justice Department released Tuesday a partial list of suspects who are either in custody or being sought for a range of offenses from immigration violations to acquiring false hazardous material licenses. The list showed that 55 of the 104 suspects charged with federal crimes are currently in custody. Ashcroft also said 548 individuals are in custody for immigration violations.
“I do not object to detention per se, but I believe the identities should be made public,” Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said. “I am deeply troubled by your refusal to provide a full account of everyone who has been detained and why.” Feingold cast the lone dissenting vote on the anti-terrorism package that passed through the Senate.
Ashcroft said Tuesday releasing the names would “advertise to the opposing side that we have al-Qaeda membership in custody.”
Michael Chertoff, assistant attorney general for the criminal division of the Justice Department, defended the actions, saying it was important that terrorists be kept in the dark when it comes to knowing which of their suspected associates had been arrested or detained.
“(Al-Qaeda) are very sophisticated about our legal system,” Chertoff said. “They actually have a manual with lessons, and the lessons include saying you should keep track of where your brothers are in the criminal justice system and you should be mindful of how the system works.”
Chertoff added there are still “sleeper cells” within the United States and the anonymous detention of suspects is necessary to detect terrorist groups.
“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 before,” Chertoff said.
Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., asked Chertoff whether the president acted within his constitutional and military powers granted to him as commander in chief.
“I think they are consistent with past practice when we have faced situations with comparable emergency,” Chertoff said.
President Roosevelt tried German saboteurs in a military court during World War II. Those who plotted and carried out the execution of President Lincoln were also tried in a military court.
Duke University law professor Scott Sullivan said there was a difference between the case of the German saboteurs and the present situation because the country then was in the “clear context of a formally declared war.”
Feingold also characterized the Justice Department’s move to send voluntary questionnaires about terrorism to people of Arab or Middle Eastern descent as “very intrusive and very frightening.”
“We are not profiling. We are not questioning the loyalty of the communities that make up America. They also lost people in what happened at the World Trade Center,” Chertoff said. “We cannot win this fight if we do not enlist everybody, all Americans of every background of whatever race, of whatever religion in this struggle.”
