US Senators seek rights protections in FBI probes

Three Democratic senators are demanding civil rights protections for Americans who might be targeted in FBI national security investigations without any evidence of wrongdoing. In a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the senators also urged the Justice Department to delay still-tentative rules that would expand Federal Bureau of Investigation powers to seek out potential terrorists. Democratic Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold fear the rules would allow surveillance of Muslim - or Arab - Americans based, in part, on their race, ethnicity or religion.