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Title

Quick, before they come to their senses!

Description

This is all happening quite quickly as well. A lot of measures are being pushed through. Attorney General John Ashcroft is imparting a sense of urgency to his own agenda for increased domestic surveillance powers (<a href="http://www.newsday.com">Newsday</a>: <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/ny-uscong252382865sep25.story?coll=ny%2Dnews%2Dprint">Act Fast on Terrorism</a>): <span class="quote"><q>[He] urged Congress to act expeditiously to broaden laws aimed at curbing terrorist activity in the United States, including allowing more detentions of legal immigrants, allowing expanded wiretaps on suspected terrorists and gaining greater access to computer information.</q></span> Even though even Ashcroft... <span class="quote"><q>conceded yesterday that none of the proposed tighter statutes would necessarily have prevented the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.</q></span> Wondering what the bill contains? Well, some interesting provisions are "...the indefinite detention of suspicious aliens with a prohibition on judicial review..." and "...one which would elevate hacking to the level of a terrorist act and invoke a mandatory life sentence....". When questioned on the constitutionality of such measures,... <span class="quote"><q>'This is a time for leadership,' [Ashcroft] replied, leaning hard on the implication that to apply reason in the current anti-terrorist frenzy would be one of the worst career moves a politician could make.</q></span> <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/21854.html">Read more</a> at <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk">The Register</a>.