After 350 arrests and claims of brutality, America worries about loss of freedom

John Ashcroft, the US Attorney General, says the authorities have rounded up more than 350 people – four times as many as previously reported – and are seeking another 400 suspects for questioning.

Mr Ashcroft wants Congress to pass counter-terrorism measures granting far greater powers to track phone and e-mail traffic, and to keep non-US citizens suspected of terrorism in custody indefinitely without the assent of a judge.

Opposition to this has been expressed with surprising vehemence by the House Judiciary Committee – where Mr Ashcroft made his arguments on Monday – and by left-wing civil liberties organisations and the right-wing privacy protection lobby. Of all people, it was Bob Barr – one of the most vicious attack dogs of the new Republican right – who questioned whether the Attorney General was seeking "to take advantage of what is obviously an emergency situation". The debate on how to protect US citizens while safeguarding their civil liberties has taken on a new urgency and could open up the first big crack in the unity that has so far kept the country solidly behind the Bush administration.

After the atrocities, many Americans seemed willing to give up cherished freedoms to keep the nation safe. Airports denied access to cars, restricted boarding areas to passengers and stopped kerbside check-in, even though experts said this would not stop attacks.

Even racial profiling – police stopping ethnic groups seen as having a high crime rate – came back after years of attempts to outlaw it. A poll in the Los Angeles Times found 68 per cent of Americans in favour of police "randomly stopping people who may fit the profile of suspected terrorists". A CNN poll found similar numbers advocating special security checks for Arabs at airports.

But then came the backlash. At least three Asians have been murdered and thousands of others have been attacked, threatened, insulted and stopped from going to work or school. At least 10 pilots have thrown Arabs or other Asians off planes because they, or passengers, felt threatened.

Kareem Alasady, his brother Akram, and Raheem Alkinani – two of whom are US citizens – were not allowed to fly from Minneapolis to Salt Lake last week. Of those questioned by the FBI, several have complained of unwarranted nastiness. Hani Teebi, a food wholesaler from Orange County in California who is active in his local mosque, told the Los Angeles Times that the FBI said he was lucky they did not bring a Swat [assault] team. "What did I do to bring in a Swat team?" Mr Teebi asked in bewilderment. He has not been implicated in the attacks.

Hussein Ibish, of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, said: "If non-US citizens can be designated terrorists and held indefinitely on secret evidence without recourse to the courts, that's not even a violation of due process. It's no process at all."