Jules Witcover notes the continuity of demagoguery from our previous Attorney General to the current one: Raising the Specter of 9/11 Again Tribune Media Services 02/08/06. Commenting on the testimony of Attorney General Roberto "Abu" Gonzales, he writes:
In flatly turning aside questions posed to him about the scope of the domestic surveillance - allegedly limited to conversations involving suspected al-Qaida or other terrorist agents - Gonzales implied that the inquiring senators were only helping the plotters with their interrogations.
"Our enemy is listening," he warned at one point, "and I cannot help but wonder if they aren't ... smiling at the prospect that we might now disclose even more, or perhaps even unilaterally disarm ourselves of a key tool in the war on terror."
The comment was reminiscent of observations that his predecessor, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, used to make. Before this same committee in December 2001 regarding civil liberties concerns about post-9/11 military detentions, Ashcroft said:
"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."
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