Wiretapping will become easier

"The gestation period has been a few weeks, but it's a heck of a lot better than giving birth to a monster."

He quoted Benjamin Franklin in laying out the balance he felt needed to be struck. "A people who would trade their liberties for security will get neither," he said.

But many civil liberty groups feel that the balance was not struck.

The only compliment that Mikal Condon of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre's (Epic) had for the legislation was that it is due to expire at the end of 2005 - unless renewed by Congress.

Wider surveillance

The legislation still contains measures to allow advanced surveillance techniques, including the FBI's controversial internet surveillance system Carnivore.

The system, which troubles Epic, would allow investigators far greater power to collect e-mail information.

Unlike other parts of the legislation which are triggered when the attorney general certifies an individual as a suspected terrorist, Ms Condon said the new surveillance powers could be used in any case.

Bush has new powers to fight terrorism

She said the legislation did not address the intelligence and investigative shortcomings that led up to the 11 September attacks.

"There is no evidence that they were lacking information on 11 September," she said.

"Everybody's been calling for increased human intelligence, increasing their ability to gather intelligence when what they need is ability to sort through intelligence."

Goes too far

The American Civil Liberties Union said the legislation went far beyond what was necessary to combat terrorism.

ACLU President Nadine Strossen said: "The bottom line is, the provisions we have been opposed to from the beginning have stayed in, such as internet surveillance. The government has enormous increased power to intercept all e-mail and internet surfing communications".

Americans are still recovering from the attacks on New York and Washington

She was also concerned that the roving wiretap ability would include public internet terminals such as in libraries or cyber cafes with no assurance that authorities would stop monitoring the terminal when the suspect was not using it.

Wider powers

The legislation also greatly expands the definition of terrorist activities, covering acts that are now thought of as civil disobedience, she said.

The legislation also increases the government's powers to detain immigrants suspected of terrorism.

Elisa Massimino, director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, said this aspect of the legislation changed dramatically from the administration�s original form.

She said the draft proposal "granted the attorney general great powers to detain any non-citizen on little more than a hunch".

The final legislation still has a broad definition of terrorism, and the attorney general needed nothing more than reasonable grounds to believe that an immigrant was a possible terrorist, she said.

But prosecutors have only seven days to start deportation procedures or charge an immigrant with a crime. Otherwise, the person has to be released

If they can be deported but the attorney general can show that their release would pose a threat to national security, they can be held for up to six months.

The Justice Department must report to Congress every six months on the use of these expanded powers.

Risk of abuse

She added that her organisation would press Congress to exercise careful oversight because the potential for abuse was so high.

"We're already seeing large numbers of people detained without being told what they are being held and without being charged," she said.