Author: Scott Helman
Publication: Globe Newspaper
Date: September 15, 2005
URL: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/09/15/wiretap_mosques_romney_suggests/
Governor Mitt Romney raised the prospect of
wiretapping mosques and conducting surveillance of foreign students in Massachusetts,
as he issued a broad call yesterday for the federal government to devote far
more money and attention to domestic intelligence gathering.
In remarks that caused alarm among civil libertarians
and advocates for immigrants rights, Romney said in a speech to the Heritage
Foundation that the United States needs to radically rethink how it guards
itself against terrorism.
''How many individuals are coming to our state
and going to those institutions who have come from terrorist-sponsored states?"
he said, referring to foreign students who attend universities in Massachusetts.
''Do we know where they are? Are we tracking them?"
''How about people who are in settings --
mosques, for instance -- that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror,"
Romney continued. ''Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following
what's going on?"
As he ponders a potential run for president
in 2008, Romney has positioned himself as a homeland security expert: He sits
on a federal homeland security advisory council, is active on the issue with
the National Governors Association, and repeatedly speaks about the lessons
the country has learned from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and,
more recently, from Hurricane Katrina.
Romney, who referred to himself yesterday
as ''red-state folk," has also struck more conservative postures on social
issues that may alienate voters in Massachusetts but endear him to the Republican
electorate nationwide; his tough talk on antiterrorism measures could also
earn him support among conservatives.
His latest message is that the United States
needs to shift its focus from response to prevention: Instead of spending
billions on training and equipment to react to an attack, he argues, the country
ought to work on stopping one.
''It is virtually impossible to have a homeland
security system based upon the principles only of protecting key assets and
response," he told an audience of about 100. ''The key to a multilayered
strategy begins with effective prevention, and, for me, prevention begins
with intelligence and counterterror activity."
But that activity is deeply troubling to civil
rights groups. Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrants
and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, called the methods Romney suggested misguided
and ineffective. Tracking people based on their ethnicity, he said, will only
sow resentment among immigrant communities and prevent their cooperation with
authorities.
''Blanket eavesdropping and blanket profiling
only erodes the safety and security of our country," Noorani said. ''People
who really know what national security is and what intelligence is realize
that we need to build trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities."
Elyes Yaich, president of the Islamic Society
of Northeastern University, said that foreign students, especially those from
Islamic countries, already face unfair scrutiny coming to the United States
and that subjecting them to specialized monitoring would further invade their
right to privacy.
''It's something that shouldn't happen,"
Yaich said. ''If they're going to do surveillance, why not do it for synagogues
and churches, too?"
Nancy Murray, director of education for the
American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said international students
are already forced to submit personal data to a federal database designed
to let the government closely track them. Keeping closer tabs would only cause
a greater chilling effect on scholars coming here from other countries.
''Now they're beginning to think, 'Well, why
don't we just go somewhere else?' " Murray said. ''We are really going
to fall behind. It's very shortsighted."
Asked to respond to that criticism, Romney
spokeswoman Julie Teer said last night that the governor has a ''realistic
view" of what it takes to fight terrorism.
''The governor believes we can strike a balance
between what is necessary to protect our homeland while respecting individual
freedom and liberty," Teer said.
Romney said he believes that both state and
federal governments have a role in intelligence-gathering. It is the FBI's
job to do wiretapping and surveillance, he said, but Massachusetts has a responsibility
to collect any useful information it can.
Central to that is a facility opened last
year at the State Police headquarters in Framingham designed to be the clearinghouse
for a variety of intelligence gathered in the state. At the facility, which
state officials call ''the fusion center," analysts armed with tips and
information from residents, police, water-meter readers, and others, will
pore through the data, look for patterns, and contact Washington about anything
noteworthy.
Romney wants to see every state have such
a system, which allows it to easily send intelligence to Washington and easily
get intelligence back.
''It's the state's responsibility to figure
out how to gather that information and fuse it together . . . to determine
where the real threats exist," Romney said.
The ACLU has been critical of the fusion center.
The group has asked whether collecting loads of data, much of which is sure
to prove useless, is the most effective way to prevent a terrorist attack.
''It just seems like we're getting more and
more driven by the need to fight the war on terrorism in a very counterproductive
way," Murray said.
Romney stressed in his address at the Heritage
Foundation that the country's antiterrorism and military operations have to
be ''nimble, agile, and fast-moving." He said the distribution of antiterrorism
money after 9/11 was haphazard and ineffective.
Cities and towns in Massachusetts and nationwide
seized the opportunity to buy new fire trucks and unnecessary equipment, he
said. ''It was everybody grabbing money as fast as we could."
If the response to Hurricane Katrina was any
indication, the extra funds did not appear to have helped, he said.
Romney was one of the first high-profile Republicans
to criticize the federal government's response to the hurricane, calling it
''an embarrassment." But in the two weeks since, he has reserved most
of his criticism for state and local governments, in particular Louisiana's
Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco.
Yesterday, Romney did not criticize Blanco
by name, though he did so implicitly a few times. At one point, he said that
one clear failure in the response to Katrina was a lack of ''fast-moving decision-making
and clear authority." He said there would be no such leadership vacuum
if a disaster hit Massachusetts.
''In my state, it's me," he said. ''The
governor's in charge. I got it."
Answering a question yesterday about the National
Guard, Romney said he believes there is no need for a military draft, calling
it ''totally unnecessary."
The Heritage audience was highly receptive
to Romney yesterday, giving him a rousing welcome and lengthy applause as
he concluded his remarks. The foundation promotes study of issues important
to conservatives.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.
Globe correspondent Chase Davis contributed to this report.
