Mukasey Defends Plan to Use Terror Profiles to Open Investigations

Attorney General

Mukasey Defends Plan to Use Terror Profiles to Open Investigations

Posted Jul 9, 2008, 09:54 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is defending his plan to use data mining to find and investigate individuals who fall within a profile considered to be suspicious.

In congressional testimony today, Mukasey said the Bush administration will do everything possible to make sure it has the tools to fight terrorists, the Associated Press reports.

Mukasey said he will safeguard privacy, but it is "important that we do everything we can to give our national security professionals, who will be confronting the al-Qaida threat well after this administration is over, the tools they need to keep us safe."

The proposed policy would allow the FBI to begin investigations after mining public records and intelligence to find individuals exhibiting certain traits, such as travel to regions of terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training. Race or ethnicity could also be taken into account.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy blasted the administration, saying it used the Justice Department to spy on U.S. residents and authorized torture of suspected terrorists. "This administration makes the Watergate look like child's play," said Leahy, D-Vt.

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