The ACLU is planning to slam Attorney General John Ashcroft in a new ad campaign:

The advertisements paint Ashcroft as a zealous ideologue who has hacked away at American civil liberties using post-September 11 concerns about national security as a pretext.

The advertisement accuses Ashcroft of "shamelessly using the events of September 11 as a subterfuge," to undermine the rights enshrined in the US Bill of Rights, such as freedom of speech and association.

"Today, the government can get a secret warrant to search your home without telling you until long afterwards," the advertisement reads.

"Today, the government can monitor your Internet use, read your emails, examine your online purchases with minimal judicial oversight. Today, you can be detained without access to a lawyer, without being charged with a crime.

"Today, John Ashcroft has authorized the FBI to monitor your political activities, to send agents into your house of worship. We can only guess what tomorrow will bring."

The "hard-hitting," ad, which will begin running in a selection of national current affairs and political magazines later this month, concludes with an exhortation to the American people to "stop the Ashcroft assault on our civil liberties."

With the Justice Department's newly revealed attempt to enact Patriot Act II, the ads couldn't come at a better time.