There has not been an execution in Australia for more than 35 years. That may change, as public outrage over terrorist acts threatens to resurrect the issue. Prime Minister John Howard has called for public debate on the death penalty, believing the issue could impact this year's state elections.

Platforms of the major political parties in Australia oppose the death penalty, which was abolished in Australia in 1985. Australia's Labor Party officials are not pleased with Howard's suggestion:

A caucus of Labor lawmakers resolved Tuesday to form a sub-committee to work on the matter. The party's spokesman on legal affairs, Robert McClelland, called Howard "irresponsible" for suggesting capital punishment was a legitimate topic for debate.

"It's the responsibility of leaders not to exploit an understandable popular sentiment - the desire for revenge in times of heinous crimes," he told the caucus.

Critics of Howard's debate suggestion also point out:

Any move to reintroduce capital punishment would be a matter for the parliaments in the country's six states and two territories -- all controlled by Labor -- not Howard's federal government.

For the first time, the U.S. is claiming that Saudi Arabian charities and the Saudi Government have funneled millions of dollars to a company allegedly associated with members of Al Qaeda and the Islamic Resistance Movement. The company is BMI, a New Jersey investment firm.

The allegation is contained in an affidavit by David Kane of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, filed in a federal case in Northern Virginia

Kane's affidavit was filed in support of the detention of Soliman S. Biheiri, who was indicted two weeks ago on charges of making false statements to obtain U.S. residency and other immigration charges. Before that, he was secretly held for more than a month as a material witness in the Justice Department's investigation of terrorist financing, according to knowledgeable sources.

....Biheiri founded BMI Inc., an investment firm that adhered to Islamic principles, in Secaucus, N.J., in 1986. One of BMI's chief investors was Saudi businessman Yasin Qadi, who the United States and United Nations named a "specially designated global terrorist" in October 2001 for his alleged support of both al Qaeda and the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas. Another major BMI investor, according to court documents, was Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.

Here's how the investigation began:

In March 2002, federal agents raided about 100 companies operating in a single office at 555 Grove St. in Herndon and took hundreds of boxes of documents. No charges have been brought so far against any companies or individuals as a result of that action and the ensuing investigation.

The sprawling probe, active on four continents, is the largest current U.S. investigation into terrorist financing, U.S. officials said.

Lots of people have been inquiring as to Attorney General John Ashscroft's schedule for his Patriot and Victory Act Tour. Here is this week's schedule, along with location details and rules for attending:

Wednesday: Philadelphia and Cleveland
Thursday: Detroit and Des Moines

Looks like we all get a break Friday. No appearances.

[Thanks to Atrios for the link].

Update: TomPaine.Com's blog rips the Tour in Kiss My Act:

Kiss My Act: Somebody might want to revise Attorney General John Ashcroft's talking points before his next public statement. He's on a cross-country mission to sell the USA Patriot Act to the American people, and today said, in defense of the law, that "if we knew then what we know now, we would have passed the Patriot Act six months before Sept. 11 rather than six weeks after the attacks." Right. And maybe we would also have listened to alarms sounded by FBI field agents in Minnesota. And beefed up security at our airports. Good news for civil liberties advocates: If Ashcroft is on the defensive, we know the controversy over this legislation is only spreading.

Ashcroft has now delivered his first speech aimed at garnering public support for the Patriot and Victory Acts. But he's not stopping there. He announced today a new Government website dedicated to the "success" of the Government in the Terror War.

Democratic Presidential hopefuls Howard Dean and John Edwards were not impressed:

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said "(Ashcroft) must not be allowed to compromise our freedoms any further" and called for a rollback of "anti-terror tactics that go far beyond protecting our country and erode the rights of average Americans." North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said Ashcroft's Justice Department "has rolled over our rights for the last two years."

Then there was this piece of dissemination today:

Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock -- wearing a white t-shirt that said "Freedom" in red letters across the front -- dismissed criticism of the Patriot Act as the work of "a small, vocal minority" spreading misinformation.

Stop one on the Victory Tour for Attorney General Ashcroft....

Attorney General John Ashcroft will speak to the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, August 19, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. EDT in Washington, D.C. The Attorney General will focus on the progress the Justice Department has made in the war on terrorism.

(Media arrival begins at 12:00 p.m.- All media must check-in by 1:30, and cameras must be set by 1:30 p.m.)

The American Enterprise Institute
Wohlstetter Conference Center, 12th Floor,
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Wash. DC

Here's more on the details of the speech, titled Security and Liberty, How America is Winning the War on Terror.

C-Span will carry it live. We bet there are quite a few hecklers. [thanks to PG at Half the Sins of Mankind for the links]

The English version of Arab newspaper Dar Al Hayat says a communique has been received from Al Qaeda (the Abu Fahes Al Masri Brigade) claiming responsibility for last week's power outage in the U.S.

The communiqué attributed to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the power blackout that happened in the U.S. last Thursday, saying that the brigades of Abu Fahes Al Masri had hit two main power plants supplying the East of the U.S., as well as major industrial cities in the U.S. and Canada, "its ally in the war against Islam (New York and Toronto) and their neighbors."

The communiqué assured that the operation "was carried out on the orders of Osama bin Laden to hit the pillars of the U.S. economy," as "a realization of bin Laden's promise to offer the Iraqi people a present."

The statement, which Al-Hayat obtained from the website of the International Islamic Media Center, didn't specify the way the alleged sabotage was carried out. The communiqué read: "let the criminal Bush and his gang know that the punishment is the result of the action, the soldiers of God cut the power on these cities, they darkened the lives of the Americans as these criminals blackened the lives of the Muslim people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. The Americans lived a black day they will never forget. They lived a day of terror and fear… a state of chaos and confusion where looting and pillaging rampaged the cities, just like the capital of the caliphate Baghdad, and Afghanistan and Palestine were. Let the American people take a sip from the same glass."

There's more.

Ok, so it's not terror related. We've heard a few people on tv talk about whether computer glitches could have caused it. Could the blaster worm have gotten into the power plant computers?

We wouldn't count anything out. In November, 2002, there was a terror alert at the power plant on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. We remember, because we were there at a law group meeting and we were all talking about it as we drove past the plant on the way to the Falls.

Also, around that time, it was reported that Colin Powell was going to provide Canada with a list of 22 potential terrorist targets in Canada, and power plants were on them. Canada responded by providing armed security at the plants.

Broadcast News (BN) November 15, 2002 Friday (available on Lexis):

Canada's nuclear power plants are now under armed guard against terrorist attack. Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal confirms the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has issued instructions to have an armed presence.

Dhaliwal wants them to come up with permanent guidelines on an armed response and to have armed personnel in the area where the nuclear plants exist. An audiotaped message, attributed to Osama bin Laden, warns of terrorist attacks on Canada and other western nations.

Then there was this, in the Canadian Press Newswire November 7, 2002 (and many other newspapers, available on Lexis):

The chief executive of a major Canadian energy and utilities company says foreign spies visited one of its natural gas processing plants just two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

'I can tell you that we are aware of agents of foreign powers that have been touring our facilities,'' Atco Group's Nancy Southern told a conference on counter-terrorism Thursday.

''And I can tell you as a result we have increased our threat assessments,
our security, and conducted significantly more security audits in all of our facilities.''

The Canadian angle and the Internet worm are likely irrelevant...but we thought we'd mention it, just in case.

MSNBC reports:

The Transportation Security Administration is conducting a “witch hunt” to ferret out and discipline employees in the federal air marshal program who have talked to the media, several sources within the program told MSNBC.com. Some air marshals are even being threatened with having the USA Patriot Act, a law enacted to help fight terrorism, used against them. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, denies that any such investigation is taking place.

[thanks to Patriot Watch for the heads-up]

Get ready, set, change the channel.....Attorney General Ashcroft is embarking on a tour to plug the Victory Act:

Attorney General John Ashcroft is hitting the road to rally support for the Victory Act, which would further expand his powers to go after Al Qaeda and narcoterrorists, the Daily News has learned. Ashcroft will starting pushing the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act later this month in a 10-day, 20-state Victory tour that includes a stop in New York.

The new bill would:

• Clamp down on Arab hawala transactions, where cash exchanged in an honor system has been funneled to terrorists.

• Get business records without a court order in terrorism probes and delay notification.

• Track wireless communications with a roving warrant.

• Increase sentences for drug kingpins to 40 years in prison and $4 million in fines.

The bill will be introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

[Thanks to Patriot Watch for the link and heads-up] We'll have plenty more to say about this over the coming weeks.

Finally, the Patriot Act will face court challenges. Last week we wrote about the ACLU lawsuit over Section 215 that allows the government broader access to business records. Today, a lawsuit was filed over another aspect of the law.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, based in New York, argues that the Patriot Act infringes on free-speech protections by outlawing "expert advice and assistance" to groups that the United States has labeled terrorist organizations, even if the assistance is humanitarian in nature and has no connection to terrorism.

The latest case involves American activists and aid workers with ties to Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, both of which have been declared terrorist groups by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

The plaintiffs argue that whatever links they might have with the groups are innocent and protected by the First Amendment, a view that has been supported by previous federal court rulings focused on other statutes.

The Feds have big plans for Supermax, the maximum security prison at Florence, Colorado. It wants to expand the institution and make it the nation's prison of choice for terrorists.

The U.S. Penitentiary-Administrative Maximum Facility, better known as "Supermax" and "Alcatraz of the Rockies," opened in Florence in 1994 as a place to put problem prisoners.

It has become the government's preferred facility for high-profile inmates, such as convicted "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.

....Testifying in May before the House subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Harley Lappin requested $23 million to build up to "24 new super-secure cells for convicted terrorists." If the money is approved, the cells will be built at Supermax.

How are these cells different from all other cells?

Solitary cells measure 7 feet, 1 inch by 12 feet, 1 inch, but at least half the floor space is filled with fixtures. Other cells are 10 feet by 12 feet. About a third of the cells are for solitary confinement. Cell amenities currently include a concrete bed, an 18-inch-high, fixed-in-place concrete stool, a fixed writing shelf, knobless stainless-steel shower and a stainless-steel unit containing a seatless toilet and knobless wash basin.

Supermax prisoners live in virtual isolation and are rarely allowed out of their cells. Cameras and microphones record nearly everything they do. In the case of terrorist inmates, who often are imprisoned under special national security provisions, that can include conversations with lawyers.

The feds are being pretty tight-lipped about the plans for Supermax, but there are indicators of what's to come:

Here is the transcript of Attorney General John Ashcroft's appearance today on Fox News Sunday. He discusses the Patriot Act, Sneak 'N Peeks, Patriot Act II and enemy combatants. It's a must read.