Maybe Attorney General John Ashcroft isn’t the greatest threat to individual liberty since the Inquisition. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been alarming so far. Ashcroft initiatives to be nervous about include the following:

Those Detainees

It's the apotheosis of frightening government power: the ability to take people away and lock them up without anyone knowing exactly who or precisely why.

Here in Philadelphia, two Arab men were detained by the FBI on Sept. 16 when they were observed acting suspiciously outside the Liberty Bell. While the FBI refused to acknowledge the incident -- FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi sticking repeatedly to her comment that "nobody was arrested" -- Philadelphia Police and park rangers have said, on the record, that they detained two Arab males and turned them over to the FBI, who whisked the men away for questioning.

Several sources claim the men were detained until at least late May; however, neither the FBI nor the Immigration and Naturalization Service will say anything.

On Friday morning, Vizi did modify her position somewhat, saying that there are no public source documents, no public records "pertaining to the Sept. 16 incident." When asked about what happened to the two men taken away by the FBI, Vizi refused comment and said she would answer no more questions about Sept. 16.

Marwan Kreidie, executive director of the Philadelphia Arab-American Community Development Corp. and a frequent spokesman for Philadelphia's Arab community, says he had not heard about the incident at the Liberty Bell.

"We haven't had any problems with the FBI whisking people away here in Philadelphia," says Kreidie, adding that he has an "excellent relationship" with Vizi and that she has been very good to the community.

Nationally, however, Kreidie says Arab-Americans are very concerned by the many incidents of individuals being whisked away and held in prison.

"I am very concerned about things coming out of the attorney general's office," he says. "What they are doing has resulted in the INS picking up people on the basis of visa violations and detaining them."

What does the Justice Department say about this problem? Not much. The facts, as the Justice Department has been willing to reveal them: More than 1,200 anonymous people have been taken into custody. Most, we are told, are non-citizen immigrants who have committed at least one infraction of a law. (There is barely a citizen who hasn't done so as well, of course.) Hundreds have been deported, 104 are reportedly still in custody for immigration violations, and more than 125 have been charged with other criminal violations, and an unknown number are now in state and local custody. The Justice Department and INS, both under Ashcroft's supervision, have not responded to Freedom of Information Act requests for information on these mystery prisoners -- who they are, what charges they face, and what courts they have appeared before.

The ACLU and 18 other organizations sued the department over this in December, and legal fights over the matter are under way in many courts, with the department appealing on any setbacks.

Secret Tribunals

He didn't invent the idea, but Ashcroft has been an enthusiastic supporter of using secret military tribunals for captives related to the war on terrorism. Defenders of those tribunals can come up with no more cogent and reasonable defense for them other than that, hell, under normal American standards of jurisprudence it's just barely possible that the accused might not be found guilty.

No Suicide Solution

Fair-weather federalist John Ashcroft sent his Justice Department after doctors in Oregon who might, in accordance with state laws, prescribe lethal medicines to terminally ill patients who request them.

Ashcroft declared in November his intention to make sure that doctors who did so would lose their license to prescribe any federally controlled drug, effectively putting them out of the doctoring business. In conducting such investigations, he instructed the Drug Enforcement Administration to examine state records about drugs prescribed, information that doctors complying with Oregon's Death with Dignity Act are required to file. Oregon's attorney general sued to stop Ashcroft. In April a federal district judge, Robert Jones, shut down Ashcroft's attempt to override Oregon's law. The Justice Department has appealed.

Drop That Joint, Granny

In 1996, California overwhelmingly passed Proposition 215, making marijuana use legal for medical purposes. John Ashcroft is not amused. He has overseen at least eight federal drug busts (not all leading to prosecutions) where a prima facie legitimate Prop. 215 defense could have been made. Among the targets were two high-profile raids of clubs in West Hollywood and San Francisco that helped the seriously ill obtain marijuana. These are arrests that would not have been made under California law.

The Neighborhood Is Watching

In March, Ashcroft announced his intention to spend several million dollars to double the number of civilian "neighborhood watch" participants to 15,000. Peppering the country with squads of local snoopers looking for suspicious activities almost guarantees a chilly environment for the right to be free of officious, deputized busybodies -- a freedom arguably at the center of civil liberties.