Secret
Arrests
In the first few days after
the September 11 attacks, some 75 individuals were detained on immigration violations.
At the same time as the administration sought increased authority from the
Congress to detain foreign individuals on the grounds of national security with
no judicial oversight, it picked up hundreds more individuals. The Attorney
General announced that 480 individuals had been detained as of September 28; 10
days later another 135 had been picked up; and in one single week during
October, some 150 individuals were arrested. As of November 5, the Justice
Department announced that 1,147 people had been detained. The Attorney General
asserted that the Justice Department was following the "framework of the
law" and that detainees' rights were being respected. However, with no
information released about the arrests, it was impossible to independently
verify that claim.
CNSS, along with forty
other organizations filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that
demanded the Justice Department, the FBI, and the INS release the names of and
charges against those that have been detained in connection with the September
11 attacks.
Click on the links below
for more information on secret arrests
CNSS vs. DOJ, Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit filed
December 6, 2001
Information released by the
government on individuals that have been arrested or detained in connection
with the investigation of the September 11 attacks
Freedom of Information Act
Request as sent to
Follow up letter to the FOIA reflecting additional support,
November 2, 2001.
List of organizations signed onto the FOIA
Responses to our request
Letter from group of Senators and Representatives to Attorney
General Ashcroft requesting information on detainees, October 31, 2001.
Letter from Senator Leahy to
Attorney General Ashcroft, November 7, 2001.
Letter from Assistant Attorney
General Daniel J. Bryant to Senator Russell Feingold with examples of
enclosures, November 16, 2001.
Statement of Attorney General Ashcroft, November 27,
2001
Testimony of Kate Martin before the Senate Judiciary
Committee, November 28, 2001
Testimony from Senate
Judiciary Committee Hearing on Detainees, December 4, 2001
Panel I:
Panel II:
Testimony of Kate Martin before
the House Committee on the Judiciary Forum on National Security and the
Constitution, January 24, 2002
Statement
of James X. Dempsey before the House Committee on the Judiciary Forum on
National Security and the Constitution, January 24, 2002 (Mr. Dempsey
is the Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology)
On June 2, 2003, the DOJ's
Office of Inspector General released a report investigating the post 9/11
detainee situation.
The nature of the report's
content caused the release to be delayed for many months. Concerned that it
would continued to be delayed, in May 2003, Senators Feingold, Leahy, Kennedy,
Durbin, Levin and Corzine and Representative Conyers sent a letter to the
Attorney General and the Inspector General urging them to release the report
immediately.
Following the release of
the report, the advocacy community sent a letter to the House Committee on the
Judiciary before Attorney General Ashcroft was going to testify at a hearing
and urged them to demand he release the names of the 9/11 detainees.
Other Memos and Letters
Articles on Secret
Arrests