Ashcroft defends the Patriot Act

CHAPEL HILL -- Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft defended the Bush administration's anti-terrorism measures amid audience hecklers and a crowd protesting outside UNC-Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall on Tuesday night.

Ashcroft said that despite questions about surveillance methods and criticism of the USA Patriot Act, a package of anti-terrorism measures, President Bush's security measures were "narrowly tailored."

"The president has been more respectful of civil liberties and civil rights than any previous wartime president in the history of the United States," he said, pointing to Franklin Roosevelt's order sending Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II and Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus to arrest tens of thousands of civilians during the Civil War.

"A great deal of sound and fury arose around the Patriot Act," Ashcroft said. "I wonder whether all of it was sincere. The truth of the matter is that in spite of all of it, when it was up for re-enactment ... it was voted for by 88 [sic] senators."

The senate renewed the Patriot Act 89-10 in March, after forging compromises to ensure greater protection of civil liberties.

"It reminds me of Shakespeare's statement about sound and fury, the tale of sound and fury signifying nothing," Ashcroft said. "Because when it came time to vote, people knew that they couldn't vote in good conscience against something that would sustain the liberty and freedom of the people of the United States rather than threaten it."

Ashcroft, 64, served as attorney general during Bush's first term in office. He resigned in November 2004, after Bush won his second term.

His 50-minute speech Tuesday was interrupted frequently by shouts from the crowd and, at one point, at least 20 people stood up and walked out together.

"How many innocent Iraqis have died?" one woman shouted after Ashcroft said that U.S. combat deaths in the last five years had been fewer than the losses on Sept. 11. As he did with many of the interruptions, he stopped to respond.

"I believe it is better to fight the terrorists there than it is to fight the terrorists here," Ashcroft said to loud applause.

Civilian deaths are the result of "Muslim-on-Muslim" violence, he said.

"This is not a charge to be laid at the feet of Americans who are seeking to provide the context of liberty and religious freedom and opportunity for people in a nation that has been oppressed by those who have killed hundreds of thousands," he said.

Ashcroft said after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he ordered staff at the Justice Department to "think outside the box, but never think outside the Constitution."

His greatest regret of his tenure as attorney general was that his defense of the Patriot Act "was very weak. ... I didn't do a good job of marketing it," Ashcroft said.

Before the speech, about 60 protesters gathered outside Memorial Hall.

Eric Gardner, a 2006 UNC-CH graduate, shouted through a bullhorn that Ashcroft is "one of the greatest criminals alive in this country right now," and said the Patriot Act was "about crushing all dissent."

Trey Winslett, a UNC-CH senior and chairman of The Committee for a Better Carolina, called the protests "low class."

"We've worked very hard, and this event has been more than six months in the works," Winslett said. "I think it's disrespectful to [Ashcroft], and I think it's disrespectful to the university."

Lt. Matt Ferguson of UNC-CH Public Safety said no arrests were made, but four people were removed from the auditorium.Three others received warnings.