this is much more than an image problem. The very dea of what it means to be American is the thited States is a country that as a matter of policy and in the name of "renders" people to regimes that specialize in the art of torture. saked Senator Patrick Leaty of Vermont, "can our State Department denounce Sunt is for engaging Yo future while the A secretly transfers detainees to the vely 4 line ount tiga for prerogation** Ma Hughes sail in March that she wou`s to her best to stand for what President Bush al'ad the nonnegol Lab's demands of human MLRY Someone should tell her that there's 1908 d be venues würke torture is inflicted because it would axporo deia «!QL_HOST Amer: cans would never want associated with in the tong hopp Not`i de art-emely beneficial ARTICLE, NEIL A. LEWIS & CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS, “A NATION CHALLENGED: IMMIGRATION, LONGER VISA WAITS FOR ARABS," NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 10, 2001, AVAILABLE ON WESTLAW AT 2001 WLNR 3372678 Westlaw. 11/10/01 NYT A1 The New York Tinies Page 1 11/10/01 N.Y. Times Al 2001 WLNR 3372678 New York Times (NY) Copyright (c) 2001 The New York Times. All rights reserved. November 10, 2001 Section: A A NATION CHALLENGED: IMMIGRATION, Longer Visa Waits for Arabs; Stir Over U.S. Eavesdropping NEIL A. LEWIS and CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS State Department says it will slow process for granting visas to young men from Arab and Muslim nations in bid to prevent terrorist attacks; officials cite changes and controversial new Justice Department plan to allow authorities to monitor all communications between some people in federal custody and their lawyers as part of basic antiterror policy to stress prevention; government weighs further preventive moves; legal profession representatives, civil liberties groups and Sen Patrick J Leahy score eavesdropping plan, chronology of moves over centuries curbing civil liberties; photos (M) shift in WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 The State Department said today that it would slow the process for granting visas to young men from Arab and Muslim nations in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks. The move came as the Bush administration was engulfed in complaints about a separate new antiterror policy by the Justice Department to allow the authorities to monitor all communications between some people in federal custody and their lawyers. That move provoked an outcry from the legal profession, civil liberties groups and Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the Judiciary Committee. The changes in visa procedures and the new authorized eavesdropping represented what government officials said was a fundamental shift in antiterror policy to emphasizing prevention. The government 18 considering more changes and is enacting others, some of which stem from new antiterrorism legislation. These measures include the following: The use of wiretaps secretly authorized by a special federal court to prosecute people suspected of involvement in terrorism on charges unrelated to terrorism. The wiretaps are supposed to be primarily for intelligence gathering and are more easily obtainable than wiretaps sought for criminal investigations. Westlaw. 11/10/01 NYT A1 The New York Tinies Page 2 The revision of guidelines prosecutors use to determine when to oppose bail for people charged with relatively minor crimes. Federal prosecutors have in many cases urged judges not to release people suspected of involvement in terrorist activities even if they are charged with minor and unrelated crimes. The holding in New York of at least 10 people as material witnesses with their arrest records sealed by court order. The new State and Justice policies on visas and the monitoring of communications between suspected terrorists and their lawyers highlighted the problem of trying to reconcile growing national security concerns with traditional civil liberties issues. State Department officials said that starting next week, visa applications from 26 nations from any men 16 to 45 years old would be checked against databases maintained by the P.B. I. The security procedure will take up to 20 days, officials said. The applicants will also be required to complete a detailed questionnaire on their backgrounds, including questions about any military service or weapons training, previous travel, and whether they had ever lost a passport. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell today portrayed the new rules as temporary. "Those who come to the United States, we're going to check on to make sure that we are "We are sensitive to how it will affect our friends," Mr. Powell told Fox News. The move on visas drew immediate criticism in the United States, where pro-immigration groups and organizations representing American Muslims said the new requirements amounted to profiling by religion or nationality, a shift to methods they called antithetical to American values. "This policy to me is very gray," said Angela M. Kelley, the deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant policy group. "It will catch up in its net people who mean us no harm. It sends the wrong message for a nation of immigrants." Westlaw. 11/10/01 NYT A1 In defending the regulations about eavesdropping in Jenel. instituted on Oct. 30 with little public notice, ser. action would help impede terrorist activities. The regulation covers not only people in federa. crisor federal marshals and the immigration service. By monitoring all conversations between lawyers and a ama custody, officials said, they would be able to prevent ar information could not be used to prosecute anyone. That is a departure from the traditional approach of officials trying to be used in a courtroom. The priority now is stopping terrorist activity, saving American evidence that's admissible in court," a senior government Under the regulation, the lawyers and their clients would be informed in their personal telephone conversations and mail would be moest head за Mindy Tucker, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said the new requ ar only a small group of people, those who had been designated as requ. 1 3 treatment. Ms. Tucker said that, so far, only 13 people in federal custody had beer are them, she said, had been arrested since Sept. 11. In an interview tonight with Larry King on CNN, Attorney General Jon Ag new guidelines had been misinterpreted by critics. - "Just imagine this," Mr. Ashcroft said. "You have a terrorist who has fact, of the 13, some are terrorists that has an incompleted task and signal those colleagues of his on the outside of a time to complete the what the terrorists endeavor. "We think we ought to be able to try and detect that and prevent that Mr. Ashcroft said the regulation stipulated that the officials listen. communications would not be able to pass any information to prosecutora the information could be used in court without a judge's permission Government officials said that among those whose lawyer-client communicatio monitored was Omar Abdul Rahman, the blind sheik convicted in the 199, World Trade Center. Senator Leahy said he was "deeply troubled by what appears to be an e exercise new powers without judicial scrutiny or statutory authorizat Westlaw. 11/10/01 NYT A1 The New York Times Page 4 "These are difficult times." Mr. Leahy added. "Trial by fire can refine us but it can also coarsen us." The administration should devise ways to counter terrorists, he said, without losing "the freedoms that we are fighting to protect." Robert E. Hirshon, the president of the American Bar Association, said that the new eavesdropping regulation clearly violated the Constitution's guarantees of the right to counsel and to be free of unreasonable searches. The attorney-client privilege dates to the reign of Elizabeth I in England and, Mr. Hirshon said, "No privilege is more indelibly ensconced in the American legal system than this privilege." Traditionally, prosecutors may ask judges to wiretap lawyer-client conversations if they can demonstrate probable cause that the lawyer is being used to carry out a criminal enterprise. The rule about attorney-client conversations was published Oct. 31 in the Federal Register, a day after it went into effect. It states that the monitoring can take place when the attorney general concludes there is "reasonable suspicion" that the communications are intended to further terrorist acts. Concerning the State Department's new visa policy, even advocates of tighter controls on immigration expressed discomfort with the approach. Steven Camarota, the research director of the Center for Immigration Reform in Washington, said the United States should scrutinize all visa applicants equally and not just focus on Muslim men. Technological advances should allow for all visa applicants to be finger-printed and checked by the F.B.I., Mr. Camarota said. "There should be a consensus in the United States that we don't want an ethnic- or religious-based immigration system," he said. Photos: Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said new visa processing rules would only be temporary. (Agence France-Presse); (Mathew Brady); (Associated Press); (Reuters) (pg. B6) Chart: "CLOSEUP: Civil Liberties vs. Threats to Society Through U.S. History" Here are some of the most significant actions by Congress or the president that have restricted civil liberties or have led to disputes about those rights. Most of the actions have come in times of war, anticipated conflict or threats of terrorism. JULY 6, 1798 -- The Alien Enemy Act, one of the Alien and Sedition Acts passed in anticipation of war with France, authorizes the deportation of "alien enemy males of 14 years and upwards." President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus in |