Don't miss Daily MoJo on the connection between the film The Battle of Algiers, the prison camp at Guantanamo and Israel's secret prison. It's all in World Behind Bars.

Attorney General John Ashcroft is slipping--in the polls and in the eyes of conservative Republicans in Congress.

New Harris Poll numbers released this week also show Ashcroft's overall popularity slipping below 50 percent for the first time this year, while the percentage of those who disapprove of his performance has climbed to nearly 40 percent.

....Ashcroft has drawn the left's ire for the reach of the government's war on terrorism; for overruling local prosecutors in death penalty cases; for altering the government's decades-old interpretation of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms; and for overseeing continued raids on facilities that provide marijuana for medical purposes. Now some conservatives, concerned that the war on terrorism has eroded civil liberties, are joining the criticism of Ashcroft's policies for the first time.

The Republicans' chief concern with Ashcroft centers on the Patriot Act. Ashcroft's visit to Idaho this week brought the critics out front:

The Humanitarian Law Project of Los Angeles and the World Tamil Coordinating Committee of New York, along with other groups, have filed a lawsuit challenging the Patriot Act.

The lawsuit is brought on behalf of the "lawful humanitarian and political activities" of the Kurdistan Workers Party and Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, which are listed as terrorist organizations by the State Department.

A coalition of legal groups and backers of Sri Lanka's Tamil community have filed a challenge to a section of the USA Patriot Act that makes it illegal to provide "expert advice and assistance" to groups with alleged links to terrorists.

The five organizations and two individuals are seeking an injunction to prevent the government from enforcing the section, arguing it violates constitutional rights of free speech and against self-incrimination.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of State Colin Powell are named defendants in the federal court suit.

Looks like the FBI is changing its hiring policies for the war against terror and we approve:

Wanted: super-smart techies interested in a good salary, early retirement and great job security. Sound unusual in this economy? Here's the kicker: Must be willing to chase down terrorists and respond to bank robberies if necessary.

Uncle Sam hopes metro Denver will be a fertile recruiting ground for its fast-growing FBI computer crimes division. The agency has congressional funding to add 960 people nationwide next year, including 192 computer crime agents.

No, here's the kicker:

Flabby computer geeks who can't run a mile won't make the cut; neither will anti-social programmers who'd rather look at a computer screen than at people, nor those who've smoked pot more than 15 times.

Not more than 15 times? Now that's progress.

Tragic: The New York Times reports that Postwar Deaths of U.S. Troops in Iraq Exceeds Combat Toll:

The number of United States soldiers who have died in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared the end of major combat there, has surpassed the number of American deaths in the first stage of the war, which began on March 19.

A total of 141 United States soldiers have died from May 1 to today, compared with 137 from March 19 to April 30, according to a spokesman at Central Command at McDill Air Force Base in Florida.

Of the total since May 1, 63 Americans were killed in action and 78 died in nonhostile incidents, the spokesman, Lieut. Ryan Fitzgerald, said.

The total number of American deaths since March 19 are 175 killed in action and 103 from nonhostile action, Lieutenant Fitzgerald added.

There are also non-fatal casualties. Considerthe number of soldiers falling ill with a mysterious pneumonia type disease that requires them to be put on respirators? The Economist has the details:

Since hostilities began in March, more than 330 American and British soldiers have died in Iraq. All such losses are regrettable, but two deaths in particular are a puzzle. They were among 18 servicemen who have developed severe pneumonia in the past six months, part of a wider but milder outbreak that has affected another 74 American soldiers.

200 people showed up to protest John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act in Boise. Here's an early report.

In Oregon, which Ashcroft visited not too long ago, the state Senate today passed a resolution urging Congress to make changes to the Patriot Act. If the resolution goes to the House and passes, Oregon will become the fourth state to take a stand against the Act which Ashcroft is now touring to defend.

Mother Jones has the latest on Orrin Hatch's scary Victory Act.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and four of his Republican cronies are out to make the word "narco-terrorism" a household term. Dan Eggen of the Washington Post reports that a draft of the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act (that's VICTORY as an acronym) would make broad changes to drug trafficking laws, allow for expanded FBI and local police wiretapping, and clamp down on a traditional Middle Eastern form of money transfer.

According to Ryan Singel at Wired News, a draft of the bill defines narco-terrorism as "the crime of selling, distributing or manufacturing a controlled substance with the intent of helping a terrorist group." Essentially, the Victory Act would make it easier for Ashcroft and his minions to charge drug offenders with aiding terrorists, and could potentially freeze the assets of a suspected offender.

Our view, including a description of the new act's provisions, is here.

Attorney General John Ashcroft takes his travelling road show to Boise Monday. Protests are expected. Idaho is not a Patriot Act-frendly state:

A group called the Boise Patriots is gathering at BSU's library tomorrow at noon to begin their protest. Members are also holding a press conference in front of Boise City Hall at 11:30am. The Boise Patriots had a booth at the Western Idaho Fair to gather petition signatures opposing the act.

The ACLU also opposes the Patriot Act saying it undermines our constitutional rights. Idaho Congressman Butch Otter agrees. He was the only member of Idaho's congressional delegation to vote against it. None of the state's four congressional members plan on attending the event, citing prior commitments.

Boise is also one of about 140 communities against the act. The Boise city council is considering a resolution opposing it.

Protests are also scheduled for Salt Lake City Monday:

Protests begin at the Little America Hotel, 555 S. Main St. in SLC on Monday August 25th at 9:30 am. Bring friends and bring signs. More signs.

For some good commentary on Ashcroft's road trip, check out Elaine Cassel's Brother John's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show, which begins:

In an unprecedented, desperate, and politically motivated move, Brother John Ashcroft has taken to the road. Setting up his tent in strategic cities to bring his Traveling Patriot Salvation Show to lost Americans. With apologies to Neil Diamond, "pack up the babies and grab the old ladies." But take 'em someplace safe, like an old-time religion tent revival, not Brother John's catechism on the USA Patriot Act.

Also check out Monday's New York Times editiorial, An Unpatriotic Act:

Attorney General John Ashcroft has embarked on a charm offensive on behalf of the USA Patriot Act. He is traveling the country to rally support for the law, which many people, both liberals and conservatives, consider a dangerous assault on civil liberties. Mr. Ashcroft's efforts to promote the law are misguided. He should abandon the roadshow and spend more time in Washington working with those who want to reform the law.

The Guardian has an in-depth report on the the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

The al-Qaida leader is said to be hiding in northern Pakistan guarded by a 120-mile ring of tribesmen whose job it is to warn of the approach of any troops.

Inside them is a tighter ring, around 12 miles in diameter, made up of tribal elders who would warn if the outer ring were breached. At the centre of the circles is Bin Laden himself, protected by one or two of his closest relatives and advisers. Bin Laden has agreed with the elders that he will use no electronic communications and will move only at night and between specified places within a limited radius.

The article says that Bin Laden is communicating by handwritten notes. The primary source of the information appears to be Mansoor Ijaz, an American financier of Pakistani origin who has spent years tracking Bin Laden and his operations. We've seen Mr. Ijaz many times on Fox News.

The article seems to place great credibility on Mr. Ijaz' theory, but we don't get a sense from it as to whether the U.S. similarly credits his information.

Is Attorney General John Ashcroft stepping over the line? In a memo to the 93 U.S. Attorneys in the country, Guy A. Lewis, director of the executive office for United States Attorneys, urges them to lobby Congress to keep funding "sneak and peek" searches.

The federal Anti-Lobbying Act generally prohibits government employees from lobbying for or against legislation. Ashcroft's spokesman says the 93 U.S. Attorneys are exempt because they are political appointees.

In addition to meeting with local House members, the memo instructs the 93 chief federal prosecutors to hold community meetings to press the virtues of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism legislation that passed overwhelmingly weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and gave the government significant new powers to conduct searches and surveillance in terrorism investigations.

Congressman John Conyers (D-Mi) has already fired off a letter to Ashcroft:

Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told Mr. Ashcroft in a letter that he should either "desist from further speaking engagements" or explain why they do not violate restrictions on political activities by government officials.

Mr. Conyers said that the speeches in defense of the USA Patriot Act, as the antiterrorism law is known, appeared to conflict with Congressional restrictions preventing the use of Justice Department money for "publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress." He said they might also violate the Anti-Lobbying Act and its restrictions on grass-roots lobbying on legislative matters.

While Attorney General John Ashcroft distracts us by parading around the country touting the Patriot Act, the equally dangerous, overly broad Victory Act bill is making the rounds through Congressional offices. The full name of the bill is the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003.

In a nutshell, the bill reinvents drug offenses as terrorism crimes. The ho-hum label of "controlled substance offense" will get a glossy makeover as many routine drug crimes become elevated into crimes of "Narcoterrorism."

Whose brilliant idea was this? The bill was drafted by worker bees in the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-UT.) Justice Department employees are disassociating the department from the bill, but we take that with a heavy grain of salt. Do you have any doubt Ashcroft will come to praise it?

ABC News has obtained a copy of the draft of the bill and provides this preliminary analysis of the 89 page bill:

Provisions in the draft would:

* Raise the threshold for rejecting illegal wiretaps. The draft reads: "A court may not grant a motion to suppress the contents of a wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, unless the court finds that the violation of this chapter involved bad faith by law enforcement."

Remarks of of Laura W. Murphy,
Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

Ashcroft Speech Obscures True Threat of PATRIOT Act

....there is a growing sense among regular Americans of all political stripes – from the most right-wing to the most left – that the PATRIOT Act went too far, too fast. Instead of merely taking rational, judicious steps to update and improve our federal police and intelligence resources, it overreaches by eroding basic checks and balances against White House and cabinet-agency power, at the expense of the people’s representatives in Congress and the bulwark of our rights, the courts.

....Moreover, when the Attorney General makes the unsubstantiated claim that the PATRIOT Act would have definitively prevented the 9/11 attacks, he also obscures another key point: the USA PATRIOT Act isn’t just about terrorism....By the Attorney General’s own admission to the Judiciary Committee, the Act is actively being applied in non-terrorism related investigations, even though terrorism was the sole justification for the bill for most of the lawmakers who voted for it.

....we need to ask ourselves several questions. Most importantly, is the Attorney General’s roadshow political in nature, designed to shore up flagging conservative support in swing states and is it prudent to have the Attorney General give up his official duties to hit the huskings for an unpopular piece of legislation? Safety and freedom will both suffer if the answers are what some expect.