Coalition demands info on detainees in terror probe

Increasingly alarmed about the detention of hundreds of people as part of an anti-terrorism investigation, Arab-American and human rights groups demanded Monday that the government reveal who are jailed, where they are kept and on what charges.

The coalition of 21 groups filed a Freedom of Information request and called a news conference to decry what they called the “unprecedented” secret detention of about a thousand residents, many of them immigrants.

Concerns about mass detention during the war on terrorism have taken on renewed urgency as the numbers pile up and federal agencies unleash new powers to seize noncitizens and hold them for up to seven days without filing charges. Human rights and libertarian groups suspect the government of using the pretext of small offenses and immigration charges to hold large numbers of people never tied to terrorism.

The flap reflects the natural tension between individual liberties and national security during a time of war.

“While certain aspects of the FBI investigation into the terrorist attack do need to be secret, we do not live in a country where the government can keep secret who they arrest, where they are being held, the charges against them or their lawyers,” said Kate Martin, director of National Security Studies. “The secret detention of more than 900 people over the last few weeks is frighteningly close to the practice of `disappearing’ people in Latin America.”

One detainee, Hady Omar Jr., 22, an Egyptian immigrant, is being held on immigration charges in a Louisiana detention center almost seven weeks after his arrest by the FBI in Fort Smith, Ark., according to his wife.

Candy Kjosa said her husband was detained for overstaying his visa and not having his INS paperwork in order from a previous marriage. His airline reservation for a flight from Florida to Texas on Sept. 11 was made at the same South Florida Kinko’s where three hijackers -- Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah and Ahmed Al-Haznawi -- made theirs.

Kjosa, 29, said she’s perplexed by the government’s focus on her husband, an antiques dealer who worked briefly in Boca Raton this year. She said her husband did not know the hijackers and at one point in the past mentioned joining the FBI.

“He’s just caught up in this coincidentally, and it’s been nerve-wracking,” Kjosa said from her Fort Smith home Monday afternoon.

As cases such as Omar’s continue to grow, the coalition’s Freedom of Information request asks the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the names of those detained in connection with the investigation, their charges, where they are held, names of lawyers and a list of courts where secrecy orders were requested. It does not ask the identity of suspected terrorists or details of the investigation, Martin said.

Justice officials have refused to disclose information about their investigation, including specifics on who is detained for questioning, but have indicated none has been charged with participating in the terrorist attacks. However, 1,017 have been detained in connection with the investigation by federal, state or local authorities, Justice Department spokesman Dan Nelson said Monday. Some have been released, but most remain in custody, many on immigration charges.

Federal officials are prohibited from releasing information about the detainees because their cases have been sealed by a grand jury or because of privacy provisions of immigration law, Nelson said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has made clear he would use the full reach of the law to take suspects off the streets and pursue the investigation into those associated with the suicide hijackings. “This government will enforce this law with all the urgency of a nation at war,” Ashcroft said Friday when President Bush signed new anti-terrorism legislation.

The new law gives the government more power to conduct searches, detain or deport suspects, eavesdrop on Internet communication, monitor financial transactions and obtain electronic records.

The detention policy apparently has blocked the release of some who were held even before the Sept. 11 attack, said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a Miami-based legal service for immigrants.

“Because they fled Arab countries, they are being indefinitely detained at this time. Even before Sept. 11th, I think those of Arab descent were not released as quickly as others, and the recent terrorist attacks have exacerbated that. Now they are detained with no end in sight.”

William E. Gibson can be reached at wgibson@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8256 in Washington.