The US Attorney General, Mr John Ashcroft, controversially extending new special police powers already enhanced since September 11th, has issued an emergency order allowing police to listen in to the consultations between lawyers and those detained in connection with terrorist investigations.
Meanwhile, the US Postal Service said four more US postal facilities have tested positive for anthrax in New Jersey, they include outlets in Palmer Square, Rocky Hill, Trenton Station E, and Jackson. The FBI said it was almost certain the same person wrote three anthrax-tainted letters and that the person was probably was an adult male who may have worked in a laboratory or had a scientific background.
The move to extend police powers, which the Justice Department said was necessary "in view of the immediacy of the dangers to the public", stunned defence lawyers and civil libertarians. They attacked it as an unconstitutional infringement on the right to legal representation and, in the words of an American Civil Liberties Union official, Ms Laura Murphy, "a terrifying precedent".
The monitoring will be conducted without a court order whenever "reasonable suspicion exists to believe that an inmate may use communications with attorneys to facilitate acts of terrorism". Mr Ashcroft's move, follows the passage of the USA Patriot Act.
