The US government has asked Congress to let prosecutors use information collected by foreign governments in ways that are unconstitutional in the US.
The administration of President George W. Bush also wants to let the FBI and other police agencies seize billing information like credit card numbers from Internet companies without a court order, according to a Justice Department analysis of the anti-terrorism legislative package it plans to submit today.
"In many cases, users register with Internet service providers using false names, making the form of payment critical to determining the user's true identity," said the analysis, which was provided in advance Wednesday to senators.
The department said in the documents it envisions that information obtained by foreign police agencies "will come to play a larger role in federal prosecutions" of terrorists. Still prohibited, it noted, would be the use in court of information gathered unconsitutionally overseas if US prosecutors participated in ordering the collection of it.
Ashcroft's legislation would allow the use of electronic surveillance gathered by foreign governments with methods that violate the US Consitution's protection against unreasonable search and seizure in American courts against American citizens.
Meanwhile, an unusual liberal-conservative alliance is decrying as an assault on civil liberties the changes in law being sought in response to the airliner hijackings.
"This proposal addresses issues that are well beyond the scope of fighting terrorism," said David Sobel of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Sobel's group is one of several that has signed a letter to lawmakers stating they should "resist the temptation to enact proposals in the mistaken belief that anything that may be called anti-terrorist will necessarily provide greater security."
Attorney General John Ashcroft, standing outside the site where one of the hijacked planes slammed into the Pentagon, said Wednesday he is deeply concerned about civil liberties.
But "we will not fail to use any tools that can promote apprehension and disruption of the networks that caused these damages and prevent similar recurrences in the future," he said.
The House's Judiciary Chairman, James Sensenbrenner, said he would hold hearings before moving the legislation. And Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy revealed that he was working on his own version of an anti-terrorist bill.
"We're trying to find a middle ground and I think we can," Leahy said after meeting with Ashcroft.
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