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Detainee names Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20020802/ts_nm/attack_names_dc_3http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20020802/ts_nm/attack_names_dc_3
Judge Orders Release of Sept. 11 Arrestee Names
Fri Aug 2, 7:39 PM ET
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department ( news - web sites) must release in 15 days all the names of those it has arrested and detained in its investigation of the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
The ruling was a victory for more than 20 civil rights, human rights and civil liberties groups that challenged the government's policy of secret arrests under the Freedom of Information Act, a law that allows for the disclosure of certain government records.
"Unquestionably, the public's interest in learning the identities of those arrested and detained is essential to verifying whether the government is operating within the bounds of the law," U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler wrote in the 45-page ruling.
Kate Martin, lead attorney in bringing the lawsuit, said the ruling vindicates basic liberties.
"The government may not arrest people in secret; the courts will stop government abuses; and the tragic events of September 11 may not be used as an excuse to suspend basic rights and round up the most vulnerable members of our society," she said.
Assistant Attorney General Robert McCallum said the ruling "impedes one of the most important federal law enforcement investigations in history, harms our efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the heinous attacks of September 11 and increases the risk of future terrorist threats to our nation."
McCallum said the Justice Department in reviewing the ruling "will be evaluating all options to protect the American public from future terrorist threats while preserving our constitutional liberties."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee ( news - web sites) and a Vermont Democrat, said: "This decision puts the rule of law over the Justice Department's unilateralism. The judge properly observes that secret arrests are a concept odious to a democratic society."
On Oct. 25, Attorney General John Ashcroft ( news - web sites) announced that the "anti-terrorism offensive has arrested or detained nearly 1,000 individuals" in the investigation into the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ( news - web sites).
Since November, the Justice Department has withheld the total number of those arrested and detained, the judge said.
The Justice Department sought to justify keeping secret the identities of those who were jailed, arguing that disclosing their names would be helpful to Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network, which the United States blames for the attacks.
Kessler rejected that argument.
DISCLOSURE OF NAMES WON'T HELP TERRORISTS
"The government has failed to demonstrate that disclosure of names could enable terrorist groups to map (the government's) investigation," she wrote.
She rejected the argument that disclosing the names would help terrorists. "Given that more than 10 months have passed since September 11, it is implausible that terrorist groups would not have figured out whether their members have been detained."
Kessler also ordered the Justice Department to disclose the names of the attorneys representing the detainees within 15 days.
But she ruled the government had properly withheld the dates and locations of arrest, detention and release.
Of those taken into custody as part of the Sept. 11 investigation, the Justice Department has said more than 750 people were detained on immigration violations. At mid-June, 74 of them remained in detention on immigration charges.
Kessler said any detainees wishing to withhold their names from public disclosure could submit a signed statement to the government requesting the confidentiality of their identities.
The judge said the other exception involved the names of material witnesses, whose identities are sealed by court orders.
She also ruled the government had conducted an inadequate search regarding its policy directives about keeping the names of detainees secret and must conduct an additional search of its records within 30 days.
The American Civil Liberties Union ( news - web sites), one of the groups that sued, called the decision a significant repudiation of Ashcroft's continued attempts to shroud the government's actions in secrecy.
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