Dragnet Produces Few Terrorist Ties

Federal criminal charges have been filed against 104 people detained in the United States in the global investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but most of those charges are not directly related to terrorist activity, according to government documents released Tuesday.

The Justice Department documents show that an additional 538 people remained in federal custody on immigration charges and that none of them were charged with participating in or plotting acts of terrorism.

The records released by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft amounted to the government’s first public accounting of more than 1,180 people swept up in that global dragnet. Until Tuesday, the Justice Department had refused to disclose whom it had detained or charged in connection with the investigation, and for weeks, concern had been mounting in Congress and elsewhere about the secrecy and scope of his investigation.

But authorities cautioned that the documents paint an incomplete picture of the investigation into the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Of the 104 people criminally charged, the names of 93 were released, while criminal complaints against 11 others in federal custody have been sealed. In addition, an undetermined number of detainees are being held in virtual secrecy as material witnesses.

Ashcroft said authorities have in custody several members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network, which the Bush administration believes is responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

He refused to say whether any of those detainees have been linked to the hijackings or any other terrorist attack or plot.

But, he added, “we believe we have Al Qaeda membership in custody, and we will use every constitutional tool to keep suspected terrorists locked up.”

In explaining the large number of detainees, Ashcroft and other U.S. authorities have emphasized that the investigation is meant to thwart future terrorist attacks. As many as 400 of those detained in the investigation have been released.

Of the 93 individuals publicly charged with criminal violations, most are accused of having fraudulent licenses for transporting hazardous materials, violating the federal immigration code, or committing fraud or theft. Seven detainees were charged with firearm violations and one with explosives charges. One person charged with credit card fraud has not been arrested.

Virtually all of the 538 immigration detainees are accused of overstaying their visa, violating the terms of the visa, entering the United States without permission or other immigration violations. The detainees come from 47 countries, most of them from Pakistan, Turkey, the Middle East and north African nations.

One federal law enforcement official said authorities are still aggressively pursuing their investigation and tracking down leads. Still, he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity: “If we had evidence indicating anyone was involved in terrorism, we would be filing charges.”

At an afternoon briefing called to announce the release of the documents, Ashcroft sought to defuse the controversy over the veil of secrecy that he has thrown over the investigation and those detained or charged.

In the weeks after the attacks, Ashcroft sought and obtained broad powers to investigate and detain suspected terrorists, prompting harsh criticism that he was abusing the civil liberties and constitutional rights of both the suspected and the accused, particularly Muslims.

Since obtaining those powers, Ashcroft has drawn even more criticism for not disclosing details of who has been detained--even to his former colleagues in the U.S. Senate. On several occasions, several senators demanded from Ashcroft a public accounting of who has been taken into custody, and on what basis, but they said Tuesday that they had never received it.

Ashcroft’s release of the information appeared to do little to appease them and came just hours before his top deputy, Michael Chertoff, was scheduled to appear before a congressional oversight committee to respond to complaints from senators about what they described as the Justice Department’s lack of disclosure.

“While I appreciate the Justice Department’s finally providing a rough estimate of the number of people who are currently in detention, I continue to be deeply troubled by its refusal to provide a full accounting of everyone who has been detained and why,” said one of the senators, Wisconsin Democrat Russell D. Feingold.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he welcomed Ashcroft’s release of the information.

“For the purposes of our committee’s oversight of the handling of these detentions, the answers we have received so far have not been responsive to our requests, but we look forward to working with the attorney general toward a full accounting,” Leahy said.

Ibrahim Hooper, representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, described the disclosure as “a step in the right direction.”

“But we’d like to know who all these people are,” he said, “whether they’re getting proper legal representation and whether there is evidence of any links to terrorists. Or are they being held on technical violations that otherwise they wouldn’t be facing? . . . We still think there’s too much secrecy.”

Ashcroft sidestepped such criticisms at his news conference while noting that he believes “it’s entirely proper that the United States Senate and House exercise oversight over the Justice Department.”

Ashcroft said he was required to make public the names of those charged in federal court but not the names of the 538 Immigration and Naturalization Service detainees. He said he will continue to withhold their names because he doesn’t want to “blacklist” them. “It’s very possible that some individuals that we think might be terrorists might someday, by further investigation, be shown not to be terrorists.”

Ashcroft also said he was refusing to release the names of the detainees, particularly those he believes are linked to Al Qaeda, because he does not want to help Bin Laden while the nation is at war with him and other terrorists.

“I do not think it is responsible for us, in a time of war, when our objective is to save American lives, to advertise to the opposing side that we have Al Qaeda membership in custody,” Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft refused to comment on who, of the 642 charged or currently in detention, is believed to be a member of a terrorist group.

“A number of the individuals that are being detained in that group of both INS and criminal-related individuals are suspected terrorists,” he said.

Of the 104 charged in criminal court, 55 were in custody and the rest were being sought by the FBI or had been released on bail. Ashcroft refused to provide details.

Robert Blitzer, a former counter-terrorism chief for the FBI, said he was not concerned that more people had not been charged with terrorism, saying federal authorities often charge suspected terrorists under general statutes because there are few laws that pertain specifically to acts of terrorism.

“It’s really not out of line or unusual for the [Justice Department] to take advantage of whatever laws they can to get terrorists off the street,” Blitzer said.

Indeed, authorities have said some of the men listed Tuesday by the Justice Department have been connected to the September hijackers but not charged with terrorism.

Luis Martinez Flores was charged with helping suspected hijackers Hani Hanjour and Khalid Almihdhar obtain fraudulent Virginia identification cards.

Mohammed Abdi was charged with forging housing subsidy checks. Abdi’s phone number and name were found on a map retrieved from suspected hijacker Nawaf Alhazmi’s car that was left at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Sept. 11, Ashcroft said.

Osama Awadallah, who was granted bail Tuesday, was charged with making false statements to a federal grand jury investigating the attacks. His name was also found in Alhazmi’s car left at Dulles, according to Ashcroft.

And Faisal Al Salmi was charged with making false statements to the FBI in connection with the investigation. Al Salmi lied about his association with Hanjour, Justice officials have said.

Among those charged criminally, 29 were cited for having fraudulent licenses for hauling hazardous materials, including at least 20 men arrested in Pennsylvania who were later ruled out as being connected to the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson and researcher Robert Patrick contributed to this report.