The Omnibus

Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Forum

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft spoke before a crowd of about 300 at Missouri State University Wednesday. Ashcroft's argued in his speech that the U.S. needed to balance preventing terrorism with protecting civil liberties. [Click to enlarge]

"Always think outside of the box, but never think outside of the Constitution," former Attorney General John Ashcroft told a friendly crowd of about 300 on Wednesday night at Missouri State University. His remark summarized the speech for the entire night: the United States must improve its techniques to prevent terrorism but also must use caution not to breech civil liberties.
Ashcroft exuded both confidence and seriousness as a friendly air filled the room. He displayed seriousness on the topic of 9/11, the only attack against civilians by a faceless enemy on our soil. Originally after that fateful day, death toll estimates were as high as 10,000 people. Fortunately they were not. The world grew exponentially more complex in the aftermath of September 11, and we will never be the same.
"The nature of terrorism is intelligent," Ashcroft stated. This struck some audience members with confusion as terrorism is normally perceived as a heartless, sadistic act not associated with intelligence. The fragmented operations of terrorists scattered throughout the world receive money from people in different countries and train in many different countries so it becomes difficult to track and prevent further attacks.
"Many terrorists have graduate degrees and use democracy as a way to impede our progress against them," said Ashcroft.
Democracy in America, the most prosperous and attractive nation for those who want to immigrate to the country, will undoubtedly fight back. Ashcroft explained that the greatest merit of the Patriot Act is the sharing of information that now occurs between law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Initially there was a barrier between the FBI terrorism and criminal investigations. Now the local law enforcement acts as a first defense against terrorism with the FBI and the CIA as indispensable support.

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