Bush administration officials said yesterday they’re considering lifting a 25-year-old ban on U.S. involvement in foreign assassinations and loosening restrictions on FBI surveillance. They said the Justice Department plans to send a wide-ranging set of proposals to Capitol Hill this week that would include more power to conduct wiretaps, detain foreigners and track money-laundering cases. Vice President Cheney said yesterday that CIA field officers may be allowed to recruit and pay overseas agents linked to terrorist groups and human rights abuses, saying it’s necessary to infiltrate suspected terrorist cells. In addition, Florida Democratic Senator Bob Graham, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says he’ll introduce a counterterrorism package next week that will create a counterterrorism czar inside the White House and establish authority for the CIA to recruit unsavory agents. And Secretary of State Colin Powell says the administration is reviewing an executive order issued by President Gerald Ford in 1976 that bans U.S. personnel from engaging in or conspiring to engage in assassinations. Some intelligence and terrorism experts have advocated assassinating Osama bin Laden. The exiled Saudi millionaire, who lives in hiding in Afghanistan, has been named the prime suspect in last week’s attacks. The Senate last week approved legislation that would make it easier for the FBI to get warrants for electronic surveillance of computer transmissions. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, called the measure overly broad and an encroachment on civil liberties. He said, quote, “We have to be careful that, in our horror and revulsion over this horrendous and terrible act, we don’t start giving away the freedoms that make us different from terrorists.” Several Democrats said many senators did not know exactly what they were voting on and supported the measure in their determination to condemn terrorism.