It has lain dormant in the darkest recesses of American law for 125 years,
but this month Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft introduced critics of the
administration to his latest weapon in law enforcement.

In a Miami federal court, the attorney general charged the environmental
group Greenpeace under an obscure 1872 law originally intended to end the
practice of "sailor-mongering," or the luring of sailors with liquor and
prostitutes from their ships. Ashcroft plucked the law from obscurity to
punish Greenpeace for boarding a vessel near port in Miami.

Not only is the law being used to prosecute one of the administration's most
vocal critics in an unprecedented attack on the 1st Amendment, but it
appears to be part of a broader campaign by Ashcroft to protect the nation
against free speech, a campaign that has converted environmentalists into
"sailor-mongers" and nuns into terrorists. [ as your mouth drops further ]

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