GOP chairman halts Patriot Act hearing

WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman walked off with the gavel, leaving Democrats shouting into dead microphones at a raucous hearing yesterday on the USA Patriot Act.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing at which the two sides were accusing each other of being irresponsible and undemocratic came as President Bush was urging Congress to renew those sections of the post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism law set to expire in September.

The hearing's announced topic was the Patriot Act, which granted broad new powers to federal law enforcement after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Republicans presented several witnesses who supported the administration's call for reauthorizing the legislation. But when four witnesses picked by the Democrats began broad denunciations of Bush's war on terrorism and the condition of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., showed his pique.

He urged witnesses to "wrap it up" and repeatedly told Democratic committee members their time for questioning had expired. "We ought to stick to the subject," the chairman scolded at the end. "The Patriot Act has nothing to do with Guantánamo Bay. The Patriot Act has nothing to do with enemy combatants. The Patriot Act has nothing to do with indefinite detentions."

"Will the gentleman yield?" Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, asked.

"No, I will not yield," replied Sensenbrenner. He completed his reproof of the witnesses and left the hearing room.

Democrats said the episode was another example of Republicans trying to stifle dissent over Bush's approach to counterterrorism.

At one point in the two-hour hearing, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., accused Amnesty International USA of endangering the lives of Americans in uniform by referring to the prison at Guantánamo Bays as a "gulag."

Sensenbrenner refused to allow the Amnesty representative, Chip Pitts, to respond until Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., raised a "point of decency."

As Sensenbrenner left, Nadler continued talking and received hearty applause when he said that "part of the problem is that we have not had the opportunity to have hearings on all these other administration policies that have led to abuses."

"The other thing that I wanted to say ... ," Nadler continued. Then his voice faded out.

"I notice that my mike was turned off," Nadler said, speaking up, "but I can be heard anyway."

The other witnesses for the Democrats were James Zogby of the Arab American Institute, Carlina Tapia-Ruano of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and Deborah Pearlstein of the U.S. Law and Security Program.

Congress is debating what changes it should make when reauthorizing the Patriot Act, which expanded the power of the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies to intercept information and data and share information obtained through foreign and domestic surveillance.

For the second day in a row, meanwhile, Bush said federal, state and local law-enforcement officials will be hamstrung if Congress fails to renew and make permanent the Patriot Act, set to expire at the end of this year.

"The Patriot Act has made a difference for those on the front line of taking the information you have gathered and using it to protect the American people," Bush told employees at the National Counterterrorism Center, in McLean, Va.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.