US President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged Congress to "untie the hands" of law enforcement by passing new anti-terrorism measures to deny bail to terror suspects, expand the death penalty and let investigators bypass grand juries to obtain subpoenas.
The initiative is a follow-up to hotly debated "USA Patriot Act" anti-terror legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, and drew fresh criticism that the administration was infringing civil liberties.
"The House and the Senate have a responsibility to act quickly on these matters. Untie the hands of our law enforcement officials so they can fight and win the war against terror," Bush said in a speech at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia, outside Washington.
Bush spoke on the eve of the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the Patriot Act had helped fight terrorism but remaining "unreasonable obstacles to investigating and prosecuting terrorism" should be urgently addressed.
The president was taking a piecemeal approach of endorsing individual measures rather than submitting a "Patriot II" package that the Justice Department had contemplated earlier.
Civil-liberties advocates in Congress, both conservative and liberal, had said such a package was a threat to constitutional protections. They said the original Patriot Act opened the door to government abuse of authority in surveillance and searches.
The American Civil Liberties Union attacked Bush's new proposals as "further erosions" of protections against "political abuses of power."
Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democratic presidential candidate from Connecticut, said Americans should be "leery" of new legislation while concerns remain about the original act. Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy said Bush should prove the new steps are needed.
Bush defended his proposals. "These and other measures have long been on the books for other crimes. They have been tested by time, affirmed by the court, and what we are proposing, they are fully consistent with the United States Constitution."
A Senate Democratic source said that because the Patriot II package had sparked widespread criticism, Republicans had sought new ways to package the anti-terror measures.
Bush urged Congress to:
-- Let law enforcement authorities bypass a judge or grand jury to issue "administrative subpoenas" in time-sensitive terrorism investigations. Such authority is available in some other types of investigations.
"If we can use these subpoenas to catch crooked doctors, the Congress should allow law enforcement officials to use them in catching terrorists," Bush said.
-- Allow courts to deny bail for terrorism suspects. Bush said it makes no sense that "terror suspects" could be released to possibly escape when courts can deny bail to drug dealers.
-- Impose the federal death penalty for terror-related crimes, such as sabotage of a military facility that "takes innocent life."
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter said he had introduced death penalty legislation encompassing Bush's aims. The legislation also would apply the death penalty for financial support of terror, conspiracy or attempt to commit terrorism.
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