In forceful and unyielding testimony, Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday defended the administration's array of anti-terrorism proposals and charged that some of the program's critics are aiding terrorists by providing "ammunition to America's enemies."
Emboldened by public-opinion surveys showing that Americans overwhelmingly support the administration's initiatives against terrorism, Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists."
He said that people who were hoping that the kind of attacks that occurred on Sept. 11 would not be repeated "were living in a dream world."
Holding up what he said was a training manual for al-Qaeda, Ashcroft said that "terrorists are taught how to use America's freedoms as a weapon against us."
The Democratic critics on the committee were careful in their questioning and most laced their remarks with some support for the administration, even for the proposal thought to be the most controversial, the establishment of military tribunals to try terrorists. But they also sought to show the potential for abuse raised by the broad scope of the presidential order on tribunals and called for more Congressional involvement in drafting such initiatives.
Senator Russ Feingold, who has been the Senate's most resolute critic of the administration's anti-terrorism proposals, quickly took on Ashcroft over his testimony that criticism of the administration "gives ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends."
He asked the attorney general if the series of Senate hearings culminating in Thursday's session was somehow aiding the enemy.
Ashcroft blandly replied that he welcomed the Senate hearings as proper oversight.
"We need discourse as opposed to fear-mongering," he said.
"This is the place where reasoning and discourse take place."
Some of the sharpest questioning came over the Justice Department's refusal to provide the FBI with information about whether any of the more than 1,200 people who have been detained in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks had sought to purchase guns.
The New York Times reported Thursday that some FBI and other law enforcement officials were frustrated by the Justice Depart-ment's decision to block its investigators from examining records of gun buyers' background checks to determine whether any of the detainees had purchased guns.
"Why is the department handcuffing the FBI in its efforts to investigate gun purchases by suspected terrorists?" asked Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Ashcroft said that he believed the law that created the national directory of gun purchase applications could not be used for anything other than an audit of the system.
"I believe we did the right thing in observing what the law of the United States compels us to observe," he said.
Senator Charles Schumer suggested that Ashcroft's reasoning was incorrect and the decision reflected the administration's opposition to gun control.
"You're looking for new tools in every direction and I support most of those," he said. "But when it comes to the area of even illegal immigrants getting guns and finding out if they did, this administration becomes as weak as a wet noodle."
Senator Richard Durbin said that Ashcroft was exquisitely sensitive to the Second Amendment's right to bear arms while he was arguing for flexibility on other constitutional guarantees. Kennedy later said that it appeared that Ashcroft was "putting the interests of the gun lobby above above the nation's public safety in the battle against terrorism."
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