Tucson, Arizona Wednesday, 18 June 2003
By Eunice Moscoso
COX NEWS SERVICE
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/Wed/30618IDETAINEES-SECRECY18-.html
WASHINGTON - In a major legal victory for the Justice Department, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the government can continue to withhold the names of more than 700 people detained in the war on terror to protect national security.
Reversing a lower court decision, the judges said disclosing the names and other information about the detainees could provide terrorists with "a complete road map" of the government's investigation after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including which cells have been compromised and which individuals have cooperated with the United States.
Such knowledge could help terrorists secure future clandestine operations, intimidate witnesses, fabricate evidence and communicate with detained operatives, the three-judge panel said in a split decision.
"If such a list fell into the hands of al-Qaida, the consequences could be disastrous," U.S. Circuit Judge David B. Sentelle said in a 31-page opinion.
Attorney General John Ash-croft praised the ruling as a victory for the Justice Department's efforts to safeguard sensitive information about terrorism investigations as well as the privacy of individuals involved in the probe.
The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is the latest in a string of court decisions that have favored the Bush administration's policies of secret detentions and other enhanced federal powers it says are necessary to fight terrorism.
Muslim and Arab organizations, civil liberties groups and immigrant-rights advocates have condemned the secret detentions of mostly Arab and Asian-American men on immigration charges or as material witnesses.
Tuesday's court ruling, which also upholds the government's policy of withholding
the names of attorneys representing the plaintiffs, stems from a lawsuit filed
by the Center for National Security Studies, a civil rights advocacy group and
22 other groups that demanded the detainee information be released under the
federal Freedom of Information Act.