The Associated Press just disclosed: As the Chief Federal Trial Judge in Manhattan, Michael Mukasey approved secret warrants allowing Government roundups of Muslims in the days immediately following September 11. Six years later the man President George Bush wants to be Attorney General acknowledged that the law authorizing those warrants "has its perils" in terrorism cases and urged Congress to "fix a strained and mismatchd legal system". Mukasey's caution about the material witness law probably will please Democrats who control the Senate Juduciary Committee. At confirmation hearings set to begin Wednesday, they plan to press the retired Federal Judge about the Bush administration's terrorist detention policy. Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Democrat Vermont, is expected to question Mukasey about this and other issues the Senator has described as arising "from this administrations abuse of secrecy and expansion of Executive power". Critics have said the administration has used the law to detain suspected terrorists when the Government lacked sufficient criminal evidence to hold them. The administration has tried to deflect criticism by pointing out that Judges must sign such warrants. Mukasey had criticized a fellow District Court Judge in Manhattan who ruled that warrants issued in the post September 11 roundup was an illegitimate use of the law. Mukasey issued a ruling upholding the warrants as Constitutional. "The Material Witness Statute has its perils", Mukasey wrote in the August 22 edition of the Wall Street Journal. Mukasey enters his confirmation hearings with a reputation as a Judge who was tough on defendants in terrorism cases, but fair. Comments, opinions...............
| 