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Turley said:
Of course, Ashcroft is not considering camps on the order of the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese American citizens in World War II. But he can be credited only with thinking smaller; we have learned from painful experience that unchecked authority, once tasted, easily becomes insatiable.

Horse dung. Turley, while on the side of justice during Klintoon's impeachment, is absolutely wrong. When did the Supreme Court declare those camps unconstitutional? Anyone?

And for those of you who are blasting Ashcroft, you're off base, too. We have enemies within. WHATEVER IT TAKES to find them, and kill them, is the barometer in wartime.

History teaches us two things:
1. Enemies cannot be given leeway just because they've infiltrated our society: in fact, they must be weeded out.

2. Civil liberties "endangered" during wars (most notably, our Civil War and World War II) are restored immediately upon the cessation of hostilities. Abe Lincoln and FDR engaged in questionable practices regarding the Constitution...and once their wars were over, the Federal government stopped--citizens and the officials realized those extreme measures were temporary and necessary.

Take off the tin-foil, please, and keep an eye out for the Enemy. He is not US.

"Civil liberties "endangered" during wars (most notably, our Civil War and World War II) are restored immediately upon the cessation of hostilities. Abe Lincoln and FDR engaged in questionable practices regarding the Constitution...and once their wars were over, the Federal government stopped--citizens and the officials realized those extreme measures were temporary and necessary."

Wrong--things never seem to go QUITE all the way back to the status quo ante-bellum. Every "emergency/war/whatever" causes just a LEETLE bit more erosion of our liberties. Look how much "regress" we have made with the "War on Drugs".

Civil liberties "endangered" during wars (most notably, our Civil War and World War II) are restored immediately upon the cessation of hostilities.

1. Rights taken during these times are never completely restored at the end of the war.

2. Exactly when will this war end? The govt. has said it may go on for years, even indefinately. By your logic, that means America's liberties may never be restored. Yet you do not seem concerned by this. Some people are.

"upon the cessation of hostilities"

those are the magic words for me

Israel has been in this position for at least 50 years, I would be shocked if it didn't last another 50. This is us. This fighting will never stop until every last one of us is dead. I personaly would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.

"...keep an eye out for the Enemy. He is not US."

What you forget is that an 'enemy' can be defined to whatever the ruling, er, elected administration happens to want it to be.

I have no doubt that an 'enemy of the state' in the eyes of a second clinton administration would include pro-life protestors, gun-owners, and any church that preaches homosexuality is a sin.

And here is the ultimate irony - the very tools a Republican administration has put into being will be the very shackles a future administration will use to their advantage and continue shredding the US Constitution.

You are either totally naive or a member of TIPS. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that there were conservative postings here and on other sites expecting the very same things that Ashcroft is doing to be done by Clinton et al. Paranoia was rampant pre-Y2K.

How ironic that its the conservatives who are now the ones willing and wanting to inter American citizens and unconstitutionally stripping them of their God given rights.

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?