| Brandishing a copy of an al-Qaeda manual on "the overthrow of the godless regimes", Attorney General John Ashcroft rebuffed criticisms he might be overstepping his powers in the fight against terrorism. "This is a seized al-Qaeda training manual -- a "how-to" guide for terrorists -- that instructs enemy operatives in the art of killing in a free society," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "In this manual, al-Qaeda terrorists are told how to use America's freedom as a weapon against us," he warned, adding it was thanks to actions by law enforcement agencies there had been no repeats of the September 11 attacks that left more than 3,000 dead on US soil. |