Are right-wing hate groups behind anthrax terror? “Nobody knows, because the Justice Department isn’t investigating violent militants on the right the way it’s monitoring Muslims, critics say.

.. Right-wing hate-group watchers say there’s been no dragnet pulling in the members of militant anti-abortion, white supremacist, Christian right or militia groups for questioning, let alone detention.

Abortion providers in particular have been calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to condemn anti-abortion terrorists who have sent anthrax hoax letters to clinics – terror that began a few years ago, and returned in the wake of the deadly anthrax letters sent last month. But so far he has not.

Ashcroft’s opponents say the Justice Department’s reluctance to directly take on right wing groups confirms what they’ve been saying all along: that the conservative attorney general, a staunch abortion opponent and friend of the Christian right, is unable or unwilling to separate his personal beliefs from his responsibilities as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.” Salon Premium [subscription required]