POLITICS: Specter Grills Gonzales on Patriot ACT

www.sfgate.com
Raising the gavel with a grin, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter opened his first hearing Thursday by allowing more criticism of the Bush administration than his predecessor and by questioning some of the Patriot Act's police powers....

..."While Judge Gonzales is the appointee of the president ... he's representing the people of the United States, a key distinction which I'm pleased to say in advance that Judge Gonzales has noted in the statement which he has submitted," Specter said.

The Pennsylvania Republican traveled a bruising path to the chairman's seat. He almost lost his claim to it last fall when he said just after Bush won re-election that anti-abortion judges might not win Senate confirmation. Administration officials were displeased, and conservatives flooded Republican Senate offices in protest....

....He questioned extending some of the police powers in the Patriot Act passed by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks, particularly language requiring judges to issue warrants without making police or prosecutors justify them.

"Why can't we have that traditional probable cause requirement on the obtaining of those records?" asked Specter. The law comes up for renewal by Congress this year.


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Specter:
The focus of media attention has been on the issue of Judge Gonzales' roles in analysis and recommendations on the handling of detainees. Judge Gonzales had issued an opinion to the president that the Geneva Convention did not apply with respect to certain of the combatants. In his memorandum of January 25th, 2000, he said, quote, "In my judgment, this new paradigm" -- referring to the war on terrorism -- "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners."

The committee will seek further amplification on a number of substantive issues from that memorandum, including Judge Gonzales' statement that, "In the treatment of detainees, the United States will continue to be constrained by its commitment to treat the detainees humanely and to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Convention."

Specter(about the PA):
But there are other questions which have been challenged by a wide array of people on all facets of the political spectrum with the issue of probably cause to obtain records, library records and the so- called sneak-and-peek orders. And we will be interested in what Judge Gonzalez has to say about that very important matter.

We will also be interested to know Judge Gonzales' views on the issue of detention and standards of detention.

The attorney general has exercised the authority to overrule conclusions by the immigration judge and a board of immigration appeals. And this is an issue which lingers after considerable questioning of Attorney General Ashcroft as to what standards ought to be used.