To the Point

USA Patriot Act Challenged and Defended

Attorney General John Ashcroft is on a month-long campaign to defend the Patriot Act. Passed just six weeks after September 11 and designed to increase federal powers against terrorism, it was approved overwhelmingly by both parties in Congress. But more recently, the Act has been condemned as an assault on civil rights by the ACLU, local governments and enough conservative Republicans that the House has blocked funding for one major provision. We speak with an ACLU attorney, the creator of the Justice Department's Terrorism Unit, a constitutional law expert, and Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders, about the Patriot Act, its success in preventing terrorism and its price in civil liberties. Making News: Security Major Concern for Iraq's Governing Council In Iraq, increased violence requires new layers of security for both US forces and the new cabinet appointed by the Governing Council. But that buffer has increased isolation from the Iraqi people. The Christian Science Monitor-s Scott Peterson, who's just returned to Baghdad from the holy city of Najaf, reports on the funeral of Ayatollah Bakir al-Hakim as well as the US efforts to create political stability in Iraq. Reporter's Notebook: The Two Percent Solution to America-s Social Ills Matt Miller's newest book has been endorsed by politicians of both parties as well as commentators on the Left and the Right, but is its promise of -Fixing America-s Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love- too good to be true? Miller, who worked in the Clinton White House and is now a syndicated columnist, NPR commentator and the "center" co-host of public radio's Left, Right and Center, expounds on The Two Percent Solution.