http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/0603/03terdetainees.html
By REBECCA CARR The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department mistreated some of the hundreds of foreigners detained after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a report released Monday by the department's own inspector general.
Glenn A. Fine's 198-page report found that some of the 762 mostly Middle Eastern men held on immigration violations faced a "pattern of physical and verbal abuse" and were held for excessive periods without being informed of the charges they faced.
At one detention center in Brooklyn, N.Y., detainees complained about "painfully tight handcuffs" and said they had been slammed against walls by corrections officers. They told investigators the officers taunted them with names such as "Bin Laden Junior" and threats such as "you're going to die here," the report said.
"While our review recognized the enormous challenges and difficult circumstances confronting the department in responding to the terrorist attacks, we found significant problems in the way the detainees were handled," Fine said.
The detentions have been sharply contested by some members of Congress and civil liberties and immigration rights groups.
Barbara Comstock, director of public affairs for the Justice Department, said the complaints are under investigation, but noted that the foreigners were all found to be illegally living in the United States.
"Our policy is to use all legal tools available to protect innocent Americans from terrorist attacks," Comstock said. "We make no apologies for finding every legal way possible to protect the American public from further terrorist attacks."
The practice of aggressively hunting down terrorist suspects and locking them up on minor immigration violations is supported by the law, Comstock said.
The department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded in February that the law permits authorities to detain an illegal immigrant for 90 days before deportation and even longer if that person is under investigation for having ties to terrorist organizations.
"It would have been irresponsible to release from custody or remove from the country illegal [immigrants] who were believed by the FBI to be connected to the Sept. 11 attacks or to terrorism," Comstock said.
In addition to the allegations of verbal and physical abuse at the New York detention center, Fine found:
• The FBI's New York field office made "little attempt to distinguish" between foreigners who were the focus of the terrorism investigation and those who had no connection to terrorism.
• The Immigration and Naturalization Service did not consistently serve the detainees with notice of charges within 72 hours, as is its stated policy. Some of the detainees did not receive documents stating the charges against them for more than a month after being arrested, affecting their ability to obtain legal counsel and request a bond hearing.
• The Justice Department instituted a policy that those detained during the terrorism investigation be held until the FBI cleared them of any connection to terrorist activity. This "hold until cleared" policy resulted in detainees remaining in custody for weeks or months longer than necessary, Fine found. The FBI's clearance process took an average of 80 days because it was "understaffed and not given sufficient priority by the FBI," the report said.
Civil liberties groups said the report underscored their long-held concern about the way the detainees were treated.
"Immigrants weren't the enemy, but the war on terror quickly became a war on immigrants," Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement applauding the report.
The report confirmed the ACLU's view that the civil liberties and rights of immigrants "were trampled in the aftermath of 9/11," said Romero. He called on the Justice Department to reveal the identities of the detainees.
But senior FBI and Justice Department officials denied that anyone's rights were trampled.
They contend that they were working around the clock, using every resource available to prevent a second wave of attacks. Their strategy was to lock up as many people with suspected ties to terrorists as possible. --- Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za]