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Attorney general urges new minimum sentencing standards

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called Tuesday for a new system of mandatory minimum sentencing rules, contending that recent Supreme Court decisions have already led to "a drift toward lesser sentences" in federal criminal cases.

Gonzales said high court rulings in January have produced uneven sentences in the federal court system and deprived prosecutors of "a critical law enforcement tool."

The former Texas Supreme Court judge said the Justice Department would favor a plan to mandate minimum sentences while allowing judges to impose longer terms at their own discretion.

"Our sentencing system works best when judges have some discretion, but discretion that is bounded by mandatory sentencing guidelines created through the legislative process," Gonzales said in a speech to a gathering of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

WASHINGTON - President Bush encouraged a Republican senator on Tuesday to offer Social Security legislation that would not include private investment accounts. The White House said the president still was committed to allowing workers to invest part of their Social Security taxes.

Bush's nod to Utah Sen. Bob Bennett's plan comes as public polls show that most Americans do not support the president's handling of the Social Security issue. Congress has been deadlocked on it.

Bennett said that during a luncheon with other Republican senators at the White House, he told the president of his plans to introduce the bill as early as next week.

WASHINGTON - The House voted Tuesday to shift intelligence dollars from satellites and other high-tech programs back to basic spying as lawmakers pushed to give embattled U.S. agencies tools to fight a wide range of threats.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said that his panel, in an annual budget bill, made cuts to expensive and sometimes duplicative technology and was investing the savings in less expensive "human intelligence" programs, or traditional spying.

WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union alleged Tuesday that the Bush administration is placing science under siege by tightening restrictions on information, individuals and technology in the name of homeland security.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks the government has actively increased the use of classifying information to keep it secret, including the use of the category "unclassified but sensitive" and extending classification authority to more departments, the ACLU said.