Documents aired by a civil liberties group show the FBI marking time in a terror investigation in order to better plead for enhanced USA Patriot Act powers in an impending Hill hearing, Threat Level’s Ryan Singel says. Terrorist groups are believed to be actively recruiting Western Europeans for possible attacks in Europe, or strikes against the United States, The Associated Press has DHS Michael Chertoff saying in Poland on Tuesday.

Feds: Lawyers for the State Department and the Pentagon have called for Senate ratification of decades-old treaties designed to limit civilian casualties in wartime, AP’s Barry Schweid reports. Military interrogators assaulted Afghan detainees in 2003, using investigation methods learned during self-defense training, AP’s Lara Jakes Jordan has newly released Pentagon documents showing. While DHS has reportedly assured lawmakers that eavesdropping will not be part of its new satellite intel program, it has given House homeland overseers few guarantees, SecurityFocussays. Tennessee and Georgia lawmakers supporting a bill aimed at tougher illegal immigration enforcement disputed a CBO cost estimate of $23.4 billion over 10 years, The Chattanooga Times Free Press’ Herman Wang writes.

McCainiacs: “John McCain remains wedded to the Bush administration’s myopic view of a world defined by terrorism,” Politico’s Daniel W. Reillyquotes Obama supporter Sen. Joseph Biden. “Last week’s hearing on Iraq may have showcased three presidential candidates but one showed himself completely out of touch with the American people: John McCain,” William Arkin blogs for The Washington Post. “The public has lost any sense of a link between ‘terrorism’ and the civil war in Iraq,” Randy Shaw assesses in a BeyondChronanalysis of “why McCain can’t win.” And “even if McCain is somehow elected president . . . he too will have to face the reality that this is not the kind of war you win,” Salon’s Gary Kamiya contends. Vietnam vet McCain “has become the target of veterans groups pushing hard for more aid and relief for troops returning from conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the Post’s Jonathan Weisman and Michael D. Shear lead.

Poly-ticks: Abrupt U.S. withdrawal from Iraq “will render Barack Obama’s bold claim that he will ‘end this war’ sickeningly ironic,” a Harvard Crimson contributor counsels. Having derided Obama’s willingness to meet with Iranian leaders, rival Hillary Clinton now recommends low-level talks with Tehran — while labeling President Bush’s approach “a loser,” Reuters reports. “Obama seems to have a propensity of associating with terrorists or those who support them and want us to talk with them,” The Assyrian International News Agency alleges — and see a Postcartoon on “painting Obama bin Laden.” To meet her goal of halving the murder rate, Clinton would make COPS grants available to fund counterterrorism police as well as community police officers, Newsday notes.

State and local: During the pontiff’s three-day visit, the NYPD will mount round-the-clock coverage of “high-profile” subway stops starting as soon as the pope arrives in the city, WCBS-TV 2 tells (and see The New York Times on American Muslim wariness sparked by Benedict XVI’s 2006 characterization of Islam as “evil and inhuman.” A plan to make Maine driver’s licenses and ID cards more secure has proved so controversial in the Legislature that “the bill’s fate is impossible to predict,” The Portland Press Herald leads. Jacksonville (Fla.) bomb squad divers are getting sonar technology being deployed for the first time by a local law enforcement agency, The Financial News & Daily Record records. The heated debate in the Arizona Legislature about the state’s Sept. 11 memorial is over — at least for now, The Tucson Citizen relays.

Kampus Kapers: Some experts say Monday’s graffiti-threat-prompted shutdown at a Michigan college and another in Chicago may mean it is time to improve campus threat assessments, The Detroit Free Press reports. In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre one year ago, schools are investing not only in cell-based alert systems, but also in lower-tech, Cold War-era alert tools: loudspeakers and sirens, USA Today tells — while a Times contributor suggests that overreacting “college administrators are instituting security measures that may undermine the carefree atmosphere of campus life.” At the University of the Pacific, staffers and faculty on an alert committee and crisis response team have been trained to respond automatically in emergencies, and each campus building has a designated leader, The Stockton (Calif.) Record records.

Ivory (Watch) Towers: As European and Australian universities siphon grad students away, applications from abroad aren’t pouring into American universities as they used to, and onerous visa requirements are likely to blame, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer informs. A Transylvania University senior is fighting a DHS deportation order based on his membership in a terror-listed Sudanese group he was forced to join at age 12, The Kentucky Kernel recounts. Islamic militants killed two Kenyan and two British teachers during a raid in central Somalia early Monday, The International Herald Tribune relays. Check DHS chief Mike Chertoff’s speech last week at Stanford’s Germ Warfare, Contagious Disease and the Constitution Conference.

Bugs ‘n bombs: A nuclear device detonated near the White House would kill roughly 100,000 people and flatten downtown federal buildings, The Washington Times has Senate homelanders being told Tuesday — while The Portland Press Herald finds experts stressing federal unpreparedness for such a disaster. With DHS clamping down on a popular fertilizer that also functions as an explosive, agriculturalists are switching to two non-regulated fertilizers: calcium ammonium nitrate and urea, The Farm Press reports. While mounting contests over water resources “may not spark conflict between states, we could well see water riots,” New Scientist quotes an expert. As of April 2, there have been 376 cases of infection with the highly pathogenic avian flu virus with 238 deaths reported in 14 different countries, Medical News Today mentions.

Coming and going: The next time you fly you may want to click on the TSA website in order to save some time or prepare to wait a little longer in security lines, Phoenix’s KNXV-TV 15 tells. An old Sheriff’s Office car is going to firefighters mounting nightly patrols along the perimeter of the North Texas Regional Airport, The Sherman Denison Herald Democratrecords. Railroads will be required to haul the most hazardous materials on their most secure routes under a new Transportation rule aimed at reducing risks of derailments and terrorist attacks, AP reports — while United Press International has the rail system in downtown Washington set to expand its video and security sensor system. “DHS rules require ships traveling in the Great Lakes to sail through more hoops. But it doesn’t mean the threat of terrorism is denting the shipping industry,” BusinessNorth surveys.

Courts and rights: For the second time, a hung jury has prompted a federal judge to declared a mistrial in the ill-starred Liberty City Six terrorism prosecution, The Miami Herald reports. A man who authorities believe was sickened by the deadly toxin ricin was arrested yesterday on federal charges after leaving a hospital, The Las Vegas Sun says. After shutting down Guantanamo, “rather than hold terrorism suspects in preventive detention, the United States should turn them over to its criminal justice system,” Human Rights Watch’s director asserts in Foreign Affairs. Justice authorities want Muslims to be vigilant and vocal about extremists in their midst, and the Islamic community needs authorities to be protective of their civil rights, The Bergen County Record reports from a New Jersey interfaith dialog.

Holy Wars: Jihadists wage “a campaign of sophisticated political warfare that is largely unacknowledged by the government and, as a consequence, is unappreciated by the American public,” a Family Security Matters feature alerts. Aussie police have been refused access to a self-proclaimed terrorist’s personal Facebook details after the Web site demanded more info about an international counterterror investigation of a member, The Australian informs. A 9/11 family survivor describes in The International Herald Tribuneher work on a project to give al Qaeda victims and their families “a voice when all the world hears are those of Osama bin Laden and his cronies.” The “clash of civilizations” thesis notwithstanding, the majority of 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference “lend territorial and/or military assistance of different shades to the U.S.’s ‘war on terror,’” an Asia Times essay asserts.

School daze: The U.C.-Santa Barbara’s Muslim Student Association is protesting an ad in the student newspaper that alleged it serves as a campus jihadi front group, The Daily Nexus notes. The MSA “has led a movement to push for the installation — in the rest rooms of universities and colleges nationwide — of foot baths for Muslim students who wish to practice the ritual washing of their feet before praying on campus,” FrontPage, relatedly, frowns. A Minnesota charter school has received harassing and threatening calls in the wake of accusations that it blurs the line between religion and state by promoting Islam, The Minneapolis Star Tribune tells. Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centers linked to British universities and backed by multimillion-pound donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim organizations, The Daily Telegraph cites from an unpublished report.

Be kind, please rewi . . . return to your own country: “DHS announced at a press conference yesterday an alliance with Blockbuster Video as the new enforcement subcontractor for its Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch,” The Spoof spoofs. “Illegal immigration has swelled to alarming numbers in the last few years and officials have been looking to find new and innovative ways to combat visa fraud and illegal immigration. Bill Kuntz, station chief in San Antonio had this to say about the new alliance. ‘You've probably read about all those terrorists. Most of them came to the United States legally, but then they hung around on those expired visas, some as long as ten or twelve years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster . . . Two days late and they’re all over you! So, we decided to put Blockbuster in charge of enforcement.’ ” See, also, in The Onion: “Southwest Airlines Now Taking Passengers To Destinations By Shuttle Bus.”