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American Morning
'Legal Grounds'
Aired November 18, 2002 - 06:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Later this morning a man accused of lying about spotting the D.C. sniper will face a judge. That's one of the stories we want to take a closer look at in our Legal Grounds segment with legal analyst Kendall Coffey.
Kendall joins us by phone from Miami -- good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, what could happen to this guy?
COFFEY: Well, he's going to get the book thrown at him because, I mean, you can't imagine a worse scenario for lying to the police, in the middle of a race against time to prevent more loss of life from the sniper. But I guess luckily for Matthew Dowdy, it's a misdemeanor book, which means his time will be measured in months rather than years.
COSTELLO: Got you.
I want to talk about the situation in Iraq a little bit as it relates to this country. Apparently the U.S. government is going to keep a closer eye on Iraqis here in the United States. What might that entail?
COFFEY: Well, they've talked about monitoring. No official details. But there are a couple different scenarios. Some of the blueprint we can get from what happened right after 9/11. There was extensive voluntary questioning of males of Middle Eastern extraction and in addition there was a very aggressive use of any kind of law breaking that could be found to do a round up. You may recall 1,200 people or so were actually rounded up, brought into custody, some held for months based on violations that could be anything from state law misdemeanors to immigration laws.
Depending on how long an intensely the conflict in Iraq goes, you may see some of those same measures.
COSTELLO: Got you. I know there was some criticism of the U.S. methods after September 11. Has anything really changed in light of that as far as the rights that the U.S. government has in rounding up these people?
COFFEY: No. I don't think, the courts were very concerned about some of the secrecy and some of the proceedings. But the basic effort to do the round up, for example, has never been condemned by any court. Meanwhile, with the passage of the USA Patriot Act, some of the tools the has may have expanded since 9/11, including national security warrants, some of which could be imposed with respect to any Iraqis in this country that they want to obtain information about.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Kendall Coffey, thank you very much.
You'll join us again next Monday.
We appreciate it, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Later this morning a man accused of lying about spotting the D.C. sniper will face a judge. That's one of the stories we want to take a closer look at in our Legal Grounds segment with legal analyst Kendall Coffey.
Kendall joins us by phone from Miami -- good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, what could happen to this guy?
COFFEY: Well, he's going to get the book thrown at him because, I mean, you can't imagine a worse scenario for lying to the police, in the middle of a race against time to prevent more loss of life from the sniper. But I guess luckily for Matthew Dowdy, it's a misdemeanor book, which means his time will be measured in months rather than years.
COSTELLO: Got you.
I want to talk about the situation in Iraq a little bit as it relates to this country. Apparently the U.S. government is going to keep a closer eye on Iraqis here in the United States. What might that entail?
COFFEY: Well, they've talked about monitoring. No official details. But there are a couple different scenarios. Some of the blueprint we can get from what happened right after 9/11. There was extensive voluntary questioning of males of Middle Eastern extraction and in addition there was a very aggressive use of any kind of law breaking that could be found to do a round up. You may recall 1,200 people or so were actually rounded up, brought into custody, some held for months based on violations that could be anything from state law misdemeanors to immigration laws.
Depending on how long an intensely the conflict in Iraq goes, you may see some of those same measures.
COSTELLO: Got you. I know there was some criticism of the U.S. methods after September 11. Has anything really changed in light of that as far as the rights that the U.S. government has in rounding up these people?
COFFEY: No. I don't think, the courts were very concerned about some of the secrecy and some of the proceedings. But the basic effort to do the round up, for example, has never been condemned by any court. Meanwhile, with the passage of the USA Patriot Act, some of the tools the has may have expanded since 9/11, including national security warrants, some of which could be imposed with respect to any Iraqis in this country that they want to obtain information about.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Kendall Coffey, thank you very much.
You'll join us again next Monday.
We appreciate it, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 18, 2002 - 06:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Later this morning a man accused of lying about spotting the D.C. sniper will face a judge. That's one of the stories we want to take a closer look at in our Legal Grounds segment with legal analyst Kendall Coffey.
Kendall joins us by phone from Miami -- good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, what could happen to this guy?
COFFEY: Well, he's going to get the book thrown at him because, I mean, you can't imagine a worse scenario for lying to the police, in the middle of a race against time to prevent more loss of life from the sniper. But I guess luckily for Matthew Dowdy, it's a misdemeanor book, which means his time will be measured in months rather than years.
COSTELLO: Got you.
I want to talk about the situation in Iraq a little bit as it relates to this country. Apparently the U.S. government is going to keep a closer eye on Iraqis here in the United States. What might that entail?
COFFEY: Well, they've talked about monitoring. No official details. But there are a couple different scenarios. Some of the blueprint we can get from what happened right after 9/11. There was extensive voluntary questioning of males of Middle Eastern extraction and in addition there was a very aggressive use of any kind of law breaking that could be found to do a round up. You may recall 1,200 people or so were actually rounded up, brought into custody, some held for months based on violations that could be anything from state law misdemeanors to immigration laws.
Depending on how long an intensely the conflict in Iraq goes, you may see some of those same measures.
COSTELLO: Got you. I know there was some criticism of the U.S. methods after September 11. Has anything really changed in light of that as far as the rights that the U.S. government has in rounding up these people?
COFFEY: No. I don't think, the courts were very concerned about some of the secrecy and some of the proceedings. But the basic effort to do the round up, for example, has never been condemned by any court. Meanwhile, with the passage of the USA Patriot Act, some of the tools the has may have expanded since 9/11, including national security warrants, some of which could be imposed with respect to any Iraqis in this country that they want to obtain information about.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Kendall Coffey, thank you very much.
You'll join us again next Monday.
We appreciate it, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Later this morning a man accused of lying about spotting the D.C. sniper will face a judge. That's one of the stories we want to take a closer look at in our Legal Grounds segment with legal analyst Kendall Coffey.
Kendall joins us by phone from Miami -- good morning.
KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: So, what could happen to this guy?
COFFEY: Well, he's going to get the book thrown at him because, I mean, you can't imagine a worse scenario for lying to the police, in the middle of a race against time to prevent more loss of life from the sniper. But I guess luckily for Matthew Dowdy, it's a misdemeanor book, which means his time will be measured in months rather than years.
COSTELLO: Got you.
I want to talk about the situation in Iraq a little bit as it relates to this country. Apparently the U.S. government is going to keep a closer eye on Iraqis here in the United States. What might that entail?
COFFEY: Well, they've talked about monitoring. No official details. But there are a couple different scenarios. Some of the blueprint we can get from what happened right after 9/11. There was extensive voluntary questioning of males of Middle Eastern extraction and in addition there was a very aggressive use of any kind of law breaking that could be found to do a round up. You may recall 1,200 people or so were actually rounded up, brought into custody, some held for months based on violations that could be anything from state law misdemeanors to immigration laws.
Depending on how long an intensely the conflict in Iraq goes, you may see some of those same measures.
COSTELLO: Got you. I know there was some criticism of the U.S. methods after September 11. Has anything really changed in light of that as far as the rights that the U.S. government has in rounding up these people?
COFFEY: No. I don't think, the courts were very concerned about some of the secrecy and some of the proceedings. But the basic effort to do the round up, for example, has never been condemned by any court. Meanwhile, with the passage of the USA Patriot Act, some of the tools the has may have expanded since 9/11, including national security warrants, some of which could be imposed with respect to any Iraqis in this country that they want to obtain information about.
COSTELLO: Understand.
Kendall Coffey, thank you very much.
You'll join us again next Monday.
We appreciate it, as always.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
