BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
U.S. president Bill Clinton continues to urge fast action in Congress on legislation to "fight terrorism" that would dramatically expand secret police powers. Proposed after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City the White House is coming across unexpected resistance to the bill.

The measures to increase government spying and conduct unwarranted searches has been criticized by liberals and conservative alike as a threat to civil liberties. "Clinton and many lawmakers appear far too ready to give up liberty to insure safety," warned a recent editorial in the New York Times.

"A genuine fear of the federal government" exists in the country that would not be eased by an increase in government powers, cautioned House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich said the appointment of Larry Potts to become the FBI's deputy director "will further slow down the terrorist legislation."

Potts supervised the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in which 80 people were incinerated following an assault by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. Potts received a mild rebuke for his role in the 1992 siege of the home of Randall Weaver, a radical white separatist in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. An FBI sharpshooter killed Weaver's unarmed wife.

A full-blown debate on the conduct of federal police agents has flared in the big-business press. In full page ads published May 16, Tom Washington, president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) appealed to former president George Bush to reconsider his resignation from the organization pending Congressional hearings on the Texas and Idaho confrontations.

Bush resigned from the NRA because of its reference to federal agents as "jackbooted Government thugs." Clinton praised Bush's actions saying the group "ought to be ashamed of themselves."

The ghost of the gruesome massacre at Waco, which has been etched in the consciousness of working people around the world, continues to haunt the administration. Under mounting criticism of the administration's handling of the raid, Attorney General Janet Reno said May 14, "knowing what had happened, I would not do it again.

"I have thought about this almost every single day since April 19, 1993. It's the single hardest decision I've made in my life," she concluded on the "60 minutes" news program. Up until recently Clinton administration officials have unabashedly defended their actions in killing some 80 "cult members."  
 
 
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