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Ashcroft: U.S. 'securing freedom'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Saying the United States is at war, Attorney General John Ashcroft Tuesday adamantly defended the administration's policy to detain enemy combatants without giving them the right to speak to an attorney. "Some people fail to understand that security is designed to secure something, and what we are securing are the rights of individuals," Ashcroft told CNN's "Larry King Live." "So, rather than security being something that challenges rights and that diminishes rights, security makes those rights safe and strong." He said the administration is "securing the rights of individuals to be free from the kind of assault" unleashed on the United States on September 11, 2001. "We're in the business of securing freedom, not sacrificing freedom," Ashcroft said. The Bush administration has come under criticism from civil libertarians for detaining some individuals without giving them due process. Ashcroft emphasized that the suspects detained in the war on terrorism who have not been allowed to speak to attorneys are classified as enemy combatants. "They're being detained because they have been combatants against the United States in a wartime situation," Ashcroft said. "To say to an enemy that if we capture 10,000 of your people on the battlefield, we'll provide attorneys for all of them" is not realistic, he said. Referring to the post-September 11 environment, he said, "It's a new game, and it's different." He did say enemy combatants "deserve certain conditions of humanity" and that the United States has provided that. "But we don't believe that an enemy combatant qualifies for all of the safeguards that are included for people who are charged with crimes in our criminal justice system," Ashcroft said. He said the Justice Department has granted the right to an attorney to those detained "in the immigration setting" or within the judicial system. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who also appeared on "Larry King Live," said he has been following the detainment of individuals "very, very carefully."
"We're all concerned about it, and we're all sensitive to it," said Olson, whose wife, Barbara, was killed in the September 11 terror attacks. "We do what we can to protect people's lives, but we protect their liberties at the same time." He said the Bush administration is following the rules in the detainment of enemy combatants in accordance with previous administrations. Olson also said the nation has never seen a battle like this before where "people are infiltrating the United States in order to ... do damage to our citizens." "I want to add that the people that are conducting this war against the United States and the citizens of the United States wear no uniforms, swearing allegiance to no country, obey no treaties and have sworn and acknowledged that what they want to do is do the most amount of damage to the most amount of individuals without regard to any rules," Olson said.
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