AS Congress rushed through an anti-terrorism bill to coincide with today's anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing, the US put in place extensive security precautions against possible new attacks from the enemy within.
The anti-terrorism bill curtails civil liberties in the US and will make it more difficult for prisoners to appeal against the death penalty.
As part of a $ 100-million security operation, bomb detection equipment has been installed at some 8,200 federal government buildings. Security and identification checks have been intensified at airports and rail stations.
The operation is designed to deter an attack from right-wing militia groups opposed to the federal government. The truck bomb which killed 168 people and wounded 500 at the federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19th 1995 was believed to have been inspired by the anniversary of the FBI raid on the compound of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, in 1993, in which more than 80 people died.
The Waco anniversary date has become an important event in the calendar of anti-government groups. One of these, the Freemen of Montana, is currently involved in a stand-off with the FBI. The Freemen face fraud charges. Anxious to end this siege peacefully, FBI agents have been using negotiation rather than intimidation, and yesterday federal agents talked for two hours with five members of the group to attempt to persuade them to surrender peacefully.
Until this day a year ago, terrorism was regarded by most US citizens as a threat from an American fanatics abroad. The prime suspect in the Oklahoma city bombing, however, is a former soldier, Mr Timothy McVeigh (27), a veteran of the gulf War.
President Clinton promised an anti-terrorism bill in the aftermath of the Oklahoma bombing and is expected to receive the new law for signature while in Russia today.
"This is vitally important legislation to the families of the victims" said Oklahoma Senator, Don Nickles, just before the Senate approved the bill on Wednesday by a vote of 91-8. It has already been agreed with the House of Representatives.
Democrats proposed amendments to make it easier to tap the telephones of suspected terrorists, tighten gun laws and bar the distribution of bomb-making instructions over the Internet. But the Republican majority voted these down.
Senator Edward Kennedy, who voted against the bill, said: "Everybody knows what happened to this bill. It fell victim to the anti-government assault of the National Rifle Association."
The bill prohibits groups from raising money for foreign organisations classified as terrorist. It makes it a crime for American citizens to support the legal activities of groups the US government declares to be terrorist. It allows the deportation of aliens suspected of having links with terrorism on the basis of evidence which the alien is not allowed to see.
These provisions have been widely criticised in the media. The lobby group, the Irish American Unity Conference, said they would be used against Irish citizens and Irish-Americans "who actively oppose British rule or human rights violations in Ireland". It said the US could deport its political adversaries "using secret evidence which need not even be given to the deportees".
The bill also reverses a policy on visas which excluded individuals on the basis of their association with terrorist activity. Now the US administration can create a list of "terrorist organisations" in which membership would be grounds for visa refusal. The Washington Post said that such a practice would exclude "peace-makers, political theorists and elected officials".
The bill, described by the New York times as a "legislative stew", undermines the doctrine of habeas corpus under which judges can decide if a defendant's right to a fair trial was infringed.
"The main victims of these provisions will be prisoners convicted under state laws by state courts. Most terrorists are prosecuted under federal laws in federal courts," the New York Times said.
It accused the President of knowing that innocent people convicted in unfair trials could be executed, but "in his apparent eagerness to get an anti-terrorism bill he can wave before voters, he never went beyond a few whispers of generalised concern about narrowing the scope of habeas corpus review."
The bill dramatically limits death sentence appeals by restricting the ability of federal courts to determine whether death row inmates convicted by state courts had been wrongly convicted. This goes further than changes sought by conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan attacked the bill saying habeas corpus was "one of the fundamental civil liberties on which every civilised society" is based. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said criticism came only from opponents of capital punishment and that the change was "long overdue".
The measure will reduce the average time spent on death row, currently eight years. About 3,000 prisoners are awaiting execution.
Oklahoma City paid tribute to the 19 children who lost their lives in the 1995 bomb attack. At ceremonies commemorating the bombing, dozens of parents' clutched teddy bears and wept as they prayed for the dead.