The Emerging Police State: With the threat of terrorism as a convenient cover, the push is on to centralize police-state powers in the hands of a strong executive branch. (On the Home Front).(internal security, United States)

Attorney General John Ashcroft's recent rebuke of the Bush administration's civil libertarian critics is setting off alarms all across the political spectrum. Ashcroft, speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee on December 6th, accused critics of Bush administration policies of "fearmongering," adding ominously:

To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists -- for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They ...