US governor stands by mosque wiretapping comments By Jason Szep
Thu Sep 29, 8:38 PM ET
BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, mulling a White House bid in 2008, on Thursday stood by his comments in favor of wiretapping mosques after religious leaders stepped up demands for him to take them back.Civil rights groups and Muslim leaders have blasted the Republican governor since he raised the prospect on September 14 of putting some Muslim students and their teachers under surveillance.On Thursday, Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders delivered a petition to his office signed by 75 people from a dozen religious groups urging him to reconsider his views.
Romney refused, telling Reuters in an interview that attacks by Islamic terrorists in London and the United States justify stronger scrutiny by U.S. authorities on activity at mosques in America.“I would devote more resources to those efforts than we are currently doing as a nation. That includes carrying out normal surveillance and wiretapping and other measures that are permitted under the Patriot Act of the Constitution,” he said.Enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Patriot Act gives the government unprecedented powers to investigate suspected terrorists, allowing authorities to search personal records from bookstores and use electronic eavesdropping.
“I’m not suggesting that we violate the law, just that we do more of what we are already doing,” he said.“Specifically if there is someone who is teaching a doctrine of hate or terror or murder or overthrow of the government, we should follow that person wherever they go, even if it is a mosque, or a synagogue or a church,” he said.“In the past, the attacks have been related to teachings going on in mosques, and for that reason I think it’s totally appropriate to pay attention to what is being taught by individuals preaching hate and terror,” he said.
His comments echoed those in his September 14 speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington in which he outlined suggestions for strengthening intelligence-gathering.The petition delivered to Romney said it was unfair to single out one religion and that preachers of “doctrines of hate and terror” could be found in every religion.“To target an entire religious community based on the words or deeds of a few people is to replace our system of individualized suspicion and responsibility with one of guilt by religious association,” it said. “This path leads away from the rule of law and toward faith-based persecution.”
Romney, elected governor in 2002, has staked out conservative positions on a number of sensitive social issues ahead of a likely White House bid in 2008.
He said he would decide by mid-December whether he will run for re-election in 2006 as Massachusetts governor.