In its investigation of the Sept. 11, the FBI is seeking whether any of the detained had purchased guns.
But U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, an ardent opponent of gun control legislation, has prohibited the FBI from checking the names of some 1,200 detainees against the list.
When he was a Missouri state senator, Ashcroft sponsored legislation that would have required destruction of the records as soon as the check was complete.
As ardently as the attorney general has been prosecuting the war on terrorism, it seems more than a little odd that he would thwart attempts to see if terrorist suspects had purchased guns in the United States. At a December 6 hearing Ashcroft declared that FBI checks of gun records "would violate the privacy" of the foreigners being detained on suspicion of possible connections to the September 11 hijackers.
----------------------------------
Anyone get the feeling that someone up there is taking the piss...
But U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, an ardent opponent of gun control legislation, has prohibited the FBI from checking the names of some 1,200 detainees against the list.
When he was a Missouri state senator, Ashcroft sponsored legislation that would have required destruction of the records as soon as the check was complete.
As ardently as the attorney general has been prosecuting the war on terrorism, it seems more than a little odd that he would thwart attempts to see if terrorist suspects had purchased guns in the United States. At a December 6 hearing Ashcroft declared that FBI checks of gun records "would violate the privacy" of the foreigners being detained on suspicion of possible connections to the September 11 hijackers.
----------------------------------
Anyone get the feeling that someone up there is taking the piss...
