What we do and don't know about Able Danger

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Would you mind adding your mother's maiden name and your father's birthplace please?

Clinton Terrorism Legislation Threatens Constitutional Rights
On February 10, 1995, a counterterrorism bill drafted by the Clinton Administration was introduced in the Senate as S. 390 and in the House of Representatives as H.R. 896.

The Clinton bill is a mixture of: provisions eroding constitutional and statutory due process protections, selective federalization -- on political grounds -- of state crimes (minus state due process rules), discredited ideas from the Reagan and Bush Administrations, and the extension of some of the worst elements of crime bills of the recent past.

The legislation would:

authorize the Justice Department to pick and choose crimes to investigate and prosecute based on political beliefs and associations;


repeal the ancient provision barring the U.S. military from civilian law enforcement;


expand a pre-trial detention scheme that puts the burden of proof on the accused;


loosen the carefully-crafted rules governing federal wiretaps, in violation of the Fourth Amendment;


establish special courts that would use secret evidence to order the deportation of persons convicted of no crimes, in violation of basic principles of due process;


permit permanent detention by the Attorney General of aliens convicted of no crimes, with no judicial review;


give the President unreviewable power to criminalize fund-raising for lawful activities associated with unpopular causes;


renege on the Administration's approval in the last Congress of a provision to insure that the FBI would not investigate based on First Amendment activities; and


resurrect the discredited ideological visa denial provisions of the McCarran Walter Act to bar foreign speakers.

Once again, the impatience of those charged with upholding the Constitution has led them to seek authority to circumvent it.

The U.S. has not been a fertile breeding ground for terrorism. Part of the reason lies in the values at the core of our unique system of governance -- diversity, religious and ethnic tolerance, acceptance of change, openness to new ideas, constitutional limits on government discretion, reliance on legal proceedings open to public scrutiny. These values make it hard to nurture in the U.S. the ethnic or religious hatred that fuels much terrorism. Unfortunately...

July 30, 1996

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton urged Congress Tuesday to act swiftly in developing anti-terrorism legislation before its August recess. (1.6 MB AIFF or WAV sound)

"We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue," Clinton said during a White House news conference.

But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures.


Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, doubted that the Senate would rush to action before they recess this weekend. The Senate needs to study all the options, he said, and trying to get it done in the next three days would be tough.

One key GOP senator was more critical, calling a proposed study of chemical markers in explosives "a phony issue."

Clinton said he knew there was Republican opposition to his proposal on explosive taggants, but it should not be allowed to block the provisions on which both parties agree.

"What I urge them to do is to be explicit about their disagreement, but don't let it overcome the areas of agreement," he said.

The president emphasized coming to terms on specific areas of disagreement would help move the legislation along. The president stressed it's important to get the legislation out before the weekend's recess, especially following the bombing of Centennial Olympic Park and the crash of TWA Flight 800.

"The most important thing right now is that they get the best, strongest bill they can out -- that they give us as much help as they can," he said.

The measure, which the Senate passed overwhelmingly Wednesday evening, is a watered-down version of the White House's proposal. The Clinton administration has been critical of the bill, calling it too weak.

The original House bill, passed last month, had deleted many of the Senate's anti-terrorism provisions because of lawmakers' concerns about increasing federal law enforcement powers. Some of those provisions were restored in the compromise bill. ...

...Republicans were divided on whether the legislation would be effective.

"We have a measure that will give us a strong upper hand in the battle to prevent and punish domestic and international terrorism," Senate Majority Leader and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole said Wednesday.

But Sen. Don Nickles, R-Oklahoma, while praising the bill, said the country remains "very open" to terrorism. "Will it stop any acts of terrorism, domestic and international? No," he said, adding, "We don't want a police state."

Some lawmakers took a more prudent view of the bill. "The balance between public safety and order and individual rights is always a difficult dilemma in a free society," said Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-New York.

Domestic Intelligence, the "Wall," and the 9/11 Commission

The 9/11 Commission hearings have highlighted intelligence failures by the FBI and CIA before September 11. On April 13, 2004, Attorney General Ashcroft told the Commission that the "wall" between law enforcement and intelligence was responsible for those failures and that the Patriot Act is responsible for breaking down that wall. Neither claim is correct......