The draft legislation would make a number of changes in the law. It would amend the law so that authorizations for electronic surveillance would apply to devices in broad terms, such as the e-mails of a cellphone, or Internet phone services from a computer. Ashcroft will be able to authorize immediate autopsies "when necessary and appropriate" to get the results quickly. It will ease the burden for federal agents who wish to obtain citizens' credit reports. It would revise the Clean Air Act, no longer requiring that companies using potentially dangerous chemicals alert the Environmental Protection Agency about "worst case scenarios." Such reports "are a roadmap for terrorists," the draft states.

One category in the draft of PATRIOT II that seems to be causing the most alarm involves changes in Title III, which is the general law used to wiretap American citizens. Under the proposed amendments to the USA PATRIOT Act, if law enforcement officials judge a situation to be a terrorist matter, any American involved would be -- according to a Democratic congressional staffer -- "essentially exempted from the Fourth Amendment," which is supposed to protect against unreasonable searches and seizures.

These changes would weaken judicial supervision of wiretaps: extending the period of time law enforcement can use a wiretap without reporting back to the designated judge from 30 to 90 days; eliminating the interim reports federal agents are required to file with judges reporting on the status of the wiretaps; and minimizing the requirement that law enforcement inform suspects that they have been wiretapped after the monitoring is over.

Democrats expressed annoyance when the push for the broader surveillance powers granted in the USA PATRIOT Act was justified by the desire to keep closer tabs on foreigners in wartime. But changes in Title III affect American citizens.

The law would also change aspects of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows government monitoring of foreign nationals in America for suspected espionage or terrorist activities. It would expand Ashcroft's authority to invoke emergency FISA warrants where no judicial permission is needed.

It would change the definition of a "foreign power" to include individuals, invoking what Sens. John Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have referred to as the "Moussaoui Fix," since in their view the FBI's investigation into the alleged "20th hijacker," Zacarias Moussaoui, was hampered by the "foreign power" definition. (Others dispute this, noting that the real problem, as specified by FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley, was that FBI brass didn't have its act together. Rowley's famous memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller III doesn't put the blame on the lack of laws, but rather on FBI bureaucrats in Washington, putting up roadblocks and failing to review her memo as well as one from Phoenix FBI Special Agent Kenneth J. Williams that questioned why so many fishy-seeming Middle Easterners were enrolled at U.S. flight schools.)

The Justice Department is also seeking to create rights that the judiciary has ruled it doesn't have. DOJ has lost a few court cases recently involving its right to arrest and detain suspects without releasing their names. The new law would grant the government such powers. Yes, this would presume that someone is guilty when they have yet to be proven so. But, the memo states, "(t)his presumption is warranted, because of the unparalleled magnitude of the danger to the United States and its people posed by acts of terrorism, and because terrorism is engaged in by groups -- many with international connections -- that are often in position to help their members flee or go into hiding."

This would presumably have prevented such losses in court as when, in September 2002, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds ruled that, by conducting his detention hearing in secret, the government had denied due process rights to Rabih Haddad, who had overstayed his visa and is accused of helping finance terrorism. Edmunds, appointed by the former President George Bush in 1992, had also ordered the government to allow reporters to attend Haddad's immigration hearings, a ruling affirmed last summer by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Like many if not most laws circulating on Capitol Hill, PATRIOT ACT II also includes a hodgepodge of provisions which, standing on their own, might be laughed out of a Senate chamber. One such tidbit in PATRIOT II would exempt individuals who receive Secret Service protection from being taxed on the value of their security details. Another provision would grant civil court immunity for corporations that violate national security laws as long as the corporation comes forward and volunteers the information. For instance, if an airline employee realizes that he allowed a gun onto a flight because he was negligent for some reason, as long as he and the airline for which he works come forward and admit the goof, they will be immune from any civil suit.

Like much of this bill, that provision was introduced before -- during the September 2001 debate over the airplane security bill -- and was not passed into law.

Justice Department spokeswoman Comstock reiterated that nothing from the draft proposal is formal, that it's all being collected and discussed and vetted. In general, she says, "we have had a very good track record in our cases and the USA PATRIOT Act being held up in court."

Ashcroft, meanwhile, was all smiles on Monday when the Justice Department announced that Enaam Arnaouot, the 41-year-old Syrian-born executive director of Benevolence International Foundation, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. On the day his trial was to begin, Arnaouot admitted that he fraudulently collected charitable donations in order to provide financial assistance to persons engaged in violent activities overseas, specifically in Chechnya and Bosnia.

Still, as of Monday, there was no organized Democratic opposition to this draft legislation. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., released a letter he'd written to the White House protesting the president's support for private-school vouchers. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe issued statements condemning recent remarks Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., made in favor of World War II-era Japanese internment camps.

At a Monday speech at the Conference on Foreign Relations, Ashcroft said that "as freedom-loving nations, we now find ourselves in the midst of an historic struggle for the values of democracy ... Let history record that we, together -- this people and this generation -- defended freedom in its hour of great danger."

Recent Stories