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Justice Department Seeks 5,000 Individuals in Terrorism Investigation
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (News Agencies) - The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday it sought as many as 5,000 U.S. visa-holders for questioning over possible connections to the September 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
"We have compiled a list of individuals who have entered this country on non-immigrant visas who may be helpful in our effort to investigate the attacks of September 11 and to prevent future terrorism," the department said in a statement.
"These individuals were selected for interviews because they fit the criteria of persons who might have knowledge of foreign-based terrorists," the statement continued, though so far, federal agents have contacted none of the individuals.
In the wake of the attacks, the Justice Department has been granted broad-based powers to question and detain people under special legislation shepherded through the U.S. Congress by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has also moved to allow conversations between detained terror suspects and their lawyers to be taped, a violation of attorney-client privilege.
Ashcroft also announced Wednesday that henceforth, serving new immigrants and enforcing immigration laws will be separate functions at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The restructuring, to be implemented within 30 days, "will make the INS a better servant to our friends and a greater obstacle to our enemies," he said.
Last week, the U.S. State Department established a requirement for a 20-day waiting period and detailed questionnaire from men between the ages of 16 and 45 from 25 predominantly Muslim countries who sought U.S. visas.
The September 11 terrorist attacks raised concerns for tighter visa controls, since some of the suspected terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon with hijacked commercial airliners had entered the United States legally.
"We have new determination not to see our welcome abused by America's enemies," Ashcroft said Wednesday.
He said the newly separated INS functions would have separate chains of command reporting to INS Commissioner James Ziglar.
Also, U.S. President George W. Bush signed an executive order Tuesday to try any suspected terrorist in military, not civil, courts, the latest administration action causing concerns among civil rights advocates as well as Arab- and Muslim-Americans.
"This could create the impression of racial and religious profiling," warned the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which represents the estimated six million Muslims in the United States.
Not so, said the Justice Department, which insisted "these individuals were not selected in order to single out a particular ethnic or religious group, or to suggest that one ethnic or religious group is more prone to terrorism than another."
But civil libertarians say the order has no historical precedent and neatly sidesteps the U.S. criminal justice system by removing the burden of proof from the prosecution and suspending constitutional protection for defendants.
The White House, in a low-key announcement, called the court an "additional tool" in the war on terrorism that ensures the security of both U.S. citizens and those in countries committed to the global war.
Under the order, Bush also has the power to direct U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to set up a military commission to try foreign-born terror suspects who have been arrested either in the United States or abroad.
The order is the latest in a series of measures taken by the Bush administration in its war on terrorism that has provoked the consternation of civil liberties groups, who accuse the president of willingly circumventing the Bill of Rights.
The court, coupled with an antiterrorism bill that sped through the U.S. Congress and the Justice Department's reconfiguration as an anti-terror agency, "is further evidence that the Administration is totally unwilling to abide by the checks and balances that are so central to our democracy," the American Civil Liberties Union said.
"The president must justify why the current system does not allow for the timely prosecution of those accused of terrorist activities," insisted Laura Murphy, who directs the ACLU's Washington national office.
"Absent such a compelling justification, [Tuesday's] order is deeply disturbing."
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