U.S. Lawyers Group Opposes Secret Detentions
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The ABA criticized U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration over secret detentions after September 11 |
WASHINGTON
, August 15 (IslamOnline & News
Agencies) - The American Bar Association (
ABA
) voted Tuesday, August 13, to oppose U.S. President George W.
Bush’s administration’s secret detentions of foreign nationals in
response to the September 11 attacks.
Joining
civil rights advocates criticizing the government, the powerful
lawyers group, which certifies for practice the nation’s lawyers,
urged the names of those secretly detained be released and that they
be given immediate access to attorney’s and their families.
Rejecting
the Justice Department’s argument that disclosing the names would be
helpful to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network, earlier this month, a
federal judge ruled the Department must release all the names of those
it has arrested or detained in the September 11 investigation.
The
Department, however, refused to comply with the court order and is
appealing the ruling in which U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said
there was no justification for a blanket secrecy policy.
The
governing body of the
ABA
, which sets policy for the association, on the last day of its annual
meeting, adopted by voice vote a recommendation opposing the
“incommunicado detention of foreign nationals in undisclosed
locations by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.”
Of
the nearly 1,200 initially detained after September 11, the Justice
Department has said that more than 750 people were detained on
immigration violations. None have been charged with any involvement in
terrorism.
Hundreds
of immigrants were swept up in the dragnet that followed the September
11 attacks, when the FBI and other law enforcement agents interviewed
thousands of people and chased leads all over the
United States
, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The
newspaper daily stated that many detainees remained in federal
detention facilities long after authorities determined they played no
role in Sept. 11 or any other terrorist conspiracy.
The
ABA
’s vote is the group’s second rebuke of the Bush
administration’s “anti-terrorism” tactics in their annual
meeting.
The
408,000-member
ABA
, through a task force, said last Friday that
U.S.
citizens who have been branded “enemy combatants” and who are
being held in this country without any charges should at least be
given access to judicial review and an attorney, reports news
agencies.
Urging
the protection of the constitutional and legal rights of immigration
detainees, the group recommending disclosing the names, whereabouts
and charges against the detainees, assuring them access to lawyers and
family members, promptly charging detainees or releasing them when
charges are not brought.
Also
recommended were proposals providing prompt custody hearings before
immigration judges to determine detention and bond issues, with the
opportunity for appellate review, conducting public hearings on
whether to deport a detainee, except when the individual’s safety
might be threatened or a judge finds information likely to be
disclosed that would compromise national security, and permitting
independent agencies to visit the detention centers and meet privately
with detainees to monitor compliance.
“It
is essential that we not tamper with the most fundamental freedoms,”
said Esther F. Larden, a
Georgetown
University
law professor who heads the
ABA
’s Coordinating Committee on Immigration Law. “At the most
difficult times, when our freedoms are tested, we speak out to
preserve the rule of law, to preserve our core values and to preserve
our national heritage.”
The
ABA
, which consists of prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and legal
experts, wields enormous influence in
Washington
and in legal circles throughout the country, reports the Times.
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