Newsday
November 30, 2005
by Jennifer Maloney

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft faced off with young critics Wednesday, defending the USA Patriot Act and the Bush administration's campaign against terrorism in a speech at Columbia University.

"When I went to the Department of Justice ... I said, 'Think outside the box,'" he said at an event hosted by conservative student groups. "Never think outside the Constitution. I believe it was followed in every respect."

During his speech, titled "Law, Liberty and Security," and in the subsequent question-and-answer period, Ashcroft sparked mixed reactions in the audience of 700 students and invited guests. Half gave him a standing ovation. Half jeered when he said the word "patriot."

Ashcroft said he shifted the Justice Department's focus from prosecution to prevention to "defend, enhance and protect liberty."

"In business schools, they put it this way: Your system is perfectly designed to give you what you're getting," he said. "If you don't like what you're getting, you need to change what you're doing."

Outside the auditorium about 250 students who dubbed themselves "The John Ashcroft Welcoming Committee" criticized Ashcroft for infringing on civil rights when he pushed for expansive law enforcement tools under the Patriot Act.

"Is my phone tapped yet?" one protester's placard read.

Ashcroft, who served as attorney general from 2001 to 2005 and now is a professor in the law and government schools at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., said law enforcement officials needed "additional tools" to "disrupt, displace and defeat" terrorists.

"We thought that the same kind of tools that had been made available in the war against drugs should be made available to the war against terror," he said. "That's why we put together what's called the Patriot Act.

"Lots of people complained about the so-called abuses of the Patriot Act," he added. "There simply weren't abuses."

Questioned on his religious beliefs, he said religion should be "inspiration, not imposition."

"I seek the wisdom of God every day," he said, earning some applause.

A member of a liberal student group on campus asked him about his position on gay rights.

"It's a disgrace to America when minorities aren't protected," she said.

"The most profound minority that should be respected in America is the minority of the individual," he said.