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Ashcroft seeks wider powers

Attorney general will ask Congress to bolster wiretap tools, toughen penalties

By Rebecca Carr, Cox News Service

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft plans to ask Congress this week for expanded surveillance powers to aid the massive investigation into the worst terrorist attack in the nation's history.

Ashcroft met with congressional leaders Sunday afternoon at FBI headquarters in Washington to begin building support for measures that range from making it easier to wiretap phones to strengthening the penalty for protecting suspected terrorists. A package of legislation is expected to be unveiled later in the week.

Some areas of the nation's legal system make it easier for investigators to capture a mafioso than a terrorist, said Ashcroft, speaking earlier Sunday morning from Camp David where he spent most of the weekend meeting with President Bush and his top national security advisers.

"It's clear to me that we need to upgrade and strengthen a number of laws in the United States," Ashcroft told reporters. "We need the maximum capacity against terrorists in the United States."

Specifically, Ashcroft wants Congress to grant federal investigators permission to obtain wiretap authorization for all of the telephones of a suspect, not merely a single phone.

Right now investigators must get wiretap permission for the telephone hardware, not a person, he said. Given the advances in communication technology, this could force investigators to obtain multiple wiretap permits for a home phone, cell phone, work phone -- even a disposable phone.

Ashcroft also would like to tighten federal laws on money laundering, a measure aimed at tracing the financing for the group of 19 men who hijacked commercial planes and steered them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

And Ashcroft wants to increase the penalties against someone who "harbors or assists" terrorists, making it a crime as serious as protecting someone who is a spy.

It is unclear how groups that protect the civil liberties of Americans would react to the package. But Justice Department officials say time is of the essence because they believe some of the accomplices of the hijackers are still in the United States.

Law enforcement authorities arrested a second person as a material witness Saturday night. Authorities believe the two who have been detained have crucial information about the hijackers.

Law enforcement officials say they cannot release any more information about the and jury sequestered in New York. More warrants are expected, but given the rules of the grand jury, it is unlikely the media will be informed about them.

Law enforcement officials are still questioning 25 people who are being held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for immigration violations.

Among the group of 25 are Ayub Ali Khan, 51, and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, 47. Authorities removed the pair from an Amtrak train in Fort Worth, Texas, which was en route to San Antonio from St. Louis.

The men were found with knives designed to cut cardboard boxes, a large sum of money and hair dye. The hijackers used similar knives to take control of the four planes hijacked last Tuesday. Khan and Azmath were sent to New York for interviews with FBI agents there.

Investigators believe at least six of the hijackers received military training in the United States.

September 17, 2001

 
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