Former U-S Attorney General Janet Reno was in Iowa City Thursday. Reno was asked her opinion of the newly-created cabinet-level “Department of Homeland Security,” the post to which President Bush named former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.
Reno says the office won’t have power, like control of budgets of the agencies he works with, so a lot will depend on how well he gets along with the president. Reno says in this case, she thinks Ridge has a solid relationship with President George W. Bush. As the top law-enforcement official in the Clinton Administration, Reno was asked about a move underway to let investigators bypass judges when they want authority to search a place or use wiretaps on phones.
She says she hasn’t seen it but thinks there will be protections for freedom. And Reno’s also heard the calls to more closely monitor foreign students, what they study in the U-S, and who they associate with. She says that monitoring should depend on the situation and the circumstances that might cause the investigation.
Asked whether the president’s high approval rating polls might benefit his brother Jeb Bush, current governor of Florida, gubernatorial challenger Reno sounded more like former U-S attorney General Reno.
She says if he has high approval, that means war will have been averted and freedom protected, so more power to him. Reno spoke with the media before giving a lecture at the University of Iowa law school Thursday afternoon. Reno was the first woman to be U-S Attorney General, leading an agency with 125-thousand employees. She recently announced she would seek the democratic nomination for Governor in Florida.
