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Ashcroft is Coming! Ashcroft is Coming!
One Way or Another He's Gonna Getcha

By ELAINE CASSEL

...Nonetheless, things are getting a little boring around the Justice Department, what with the nude statues draped and all, and some of John's best buddies gone.

So, this week, John brought together some of his favorite prosecutors from around the country and hauled out boxes of files. Old files. Old surveillance files. Maybe on you and me.

And John said to his disciples, charge these people. I don't care with what. They must have done something or we wouldn't have a file on them....

...This week, Ashcroft told his prosecutors to start reviewing 25 years of telephone and e-mail wiretaps and results from secret searches--in files on 4.500 people-- and decide whether they can file criminal charges under anti-terrorist laws.

The wiretaps and searches were performed on "suspected" spies and terrorists-suspected, as in no probable cause, but mere suspicion-- under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. With permission from a super-secret U.S. spy court, the FBI has used such warrants to break into homes, offices and hotel rooms to install hidden cameras, copy computer files and eavesdrop on telephones. Agents also have intercepted e-mails and pried into safe deposit boxes.

Criminal prosecutors previously were not entitled to the contents of intelligence files, which were limited under Justice Department policies to government espionage and counterterrorism experts. But a court ruling this year by the appellate branch of the secret court lowered that wall, allowing the review of old surveillance. The efforts of a trial FISA judge to curtail Ashcroft's runaway snooping was met not only with resistance by the appeals court, but the court gave Ashcroft more than a win. Yo, John, they said. Didn't you know that you could go back and use past searches to prosecute those new laws you wrote into the PATRIOT ACT?...