Ashcroft Event not open to public

Ashcroft visit is orchestrated to diminish view of dissent

LAW ENFORCEMENT
Ashcroft to address officers here; public barred
By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
9/6/2003

When U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft brings his national speaking tour to Buffalo on Monday, he will address only law enforcement officials and reporters. He plans to grant interviews only to television reporters and will not answer questions from newspapers or other print media, officials said.
Ashcroft will be here as part of his national tour to defend the USA Patriot Act, a tough anti-terrorism program enacted after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He is scheduled to speak at 10:45 a.m. Monday in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

The public is not invited, and that drew criticism Friday from officials of two groups that plan to protest during Ashcroft's visit - the Western New York Peace Center and the Buffalo office of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"The public is paying for this taxpayer-financed public relations tour of Mr. Ashcroft's, but the public is not invited," said Jeanne-Noel Mahoney, regional director of the NYCLU. "That's right in keeping with the actions of this administration."

"They don't want a skeptical audience. They want it to appear that the Patriot Act is widely accepted," said Charles H. Cobb, executive director of the Peace Center. "Well, there will be protesters outside the Hyatt, and we will be heard."

On the "no print media" rule by the Justice Department, Cobb said:

"To me, this is all part of an elaborate (public relations) campaign, and they don't want the print media asking a lot of questions. They want this story to come out in eight-second sound bites."

Cobb and Mahoney estimated that 100 to several hundred protesters will show up outside the downtown hotel to demonstrate against the Patriot Act.

The two activists said they hope reporters will raise many questions about the case involving six Lackawanna men who are facing prison time for traveling to Afghanistan and training with the al-Qaida terrorist organization.

The Buffalo News first reported Aug. 26 that a number of area police chiefs had been invited to hear the Ashcroft speech, but the speaking engagement was not formally announced by the Justice Department until about noon Friday.

It was also announced that Ashcroft will speak later Monday in New Castle, N.H., and later in the week in Boston, Mass., and New York City.

The Patriot Act has been sharply criticized in recent months by civil liberties advocates who consider it an overzealous attack on the rights of Arab-Americans and visitors from Mideast countries. Some lawmakers have begun efforts to repeal the law.

Over the past two weeks, Ashcroft has been telling law enforcement officials and reporters that the Patriot Act is needed to prevent terrorist attacks.

"We have used the tools provided in the Patriot Act to fulfill our first responsibility to protect the American people," he said Aug. 19 in Washington, his first stop on the tour. "We have used these tools to save innocent American lives."

Justice Department officials also have set up a Web site - www.lifeandliberty.gov - to seek public support for the continuation of the Patriot Act.

"The fact that Ashcroft is going out on a tour like this tells me he knows the Patriot Act is in trouble," Mahoney said.

e-mail: dherbeck@buffnews.com