More Key Senators Seek to Delay AG's Planned Investigative Guidelines
Four senior Democratic senators joined today with leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee in calling for further public review before new investigative guidelines planned by Attorney General Michael Mukasey become effective.
The guidelines, which Mukasey says are needed to fight terrorism effectively, are now set to be finalized by the attorney general next week. Critics say they could be used unreasonably, to target individuals for criminal “profile” investigations, based on noncriminal facts such as their ethnicity, travel arrangements and political speech protected by the First Amendment, reports the Associated Press.
“Currently, the FBI must have evidence or allegations of wrongdoing before opening an investigation of U.S. citizens or legal residents from other countries. As described by some law enforcement officials, the new policy would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious,” the news agency writes.
The four who expressed concern about the guidelines today are Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Previously, both Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee’s top-ranking Republican, also asked that implementation of the guidelines be delayed.
They do not require Congressional approval, the AP says. If approved by Mukasey next week, they would take effect on Oct. 1, reports Congress Daily.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “‘Profile’ Investigations By FBI Being Considered at DOJ”
ABAJournal.com: “Mukasey Defends Plan to Use Terror Profiles to Open Investigations”
ABAJournal.com: “Mukasey Says He’ll Give FBI More Authority to Gather Intelligence”
