"He had a press pass and everything, so I figured he was cool," said auxiliary policeman Ted Coleman.

Upon hearing the news, court recorder, Helen Meeker, immediately contacted authorities:  "I called the Attorney General's office, but I was told that Mr. Ashcroft was too busy violating the rights of Muslim immigrants, creating a blacklist of federal judges and expanding his Gestapo Patriot Act powers to worry about Saddam Hussein."