Bush, prosecutors push Patriot Act

WASHINGTON -- President Bush fired the first shot in the renewed battle over the USA Patriot Act, hosting on Tuesday a group of federal prosecutors who said the soon-to-expire law helped solve major crimes.

"These good folks have used the Patriot Act to protect America," Bush said. He accused Senate Democrats of blocking reauthorization of the law for "partisan reasons."

The Patriot Act, passed after the 9/11 attacks to give law enforcement extra powers to track terrorism suspects, expires Feb. 3. Bush wants to make it permanent.

Bush-appointed U.S. attorneys from 14 states and the District of Columbia said the law has helped them crack cases involving terrorist finances, weapons exchanged for drugs, and child abductions.

Senate Democrats who blocked renewal late last year, such as Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said they support the law but want to make sure civil liberties are protected.

Four Republican senators joined Democrats in blocking renewal of the law: Larry Craig of Idaho, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. The Senate GOP leadership agreed to a six-month extension. The GOP-led House of Representatives later cut that extension to five weeks from its original expiration date of Dec. 31.

The House is not scheduled to reconvene until Jan. 31, just three days before the Patriot Act expires.

The coming debate could well focus on other issues, particularly disclosures that the Bush administration approved domestic wiretapping of terrorism suspects without seeking warrants.

In voting to block renewal, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the revelation "greatly influenced my vote."

Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, said Bush may be aiming to pressure the four dissenting Republicans. But he said controversy over the warrantless surveillance program could make renewing the Patriot Act "an uphill task." Even Republicans such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania called the spying inappropriate.

U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf, from New York, said the Patriot Act enabled her office to convict two men of funneling $20 million to terrorist groups.

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam of California said that before 9/11, information from a foreign intelligence wiretap could not be shared with criminal prosecutors. She said officials had to choose between "pursuing an intelligence investigation or a criminal investigation."

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