FC: Sep. 11 fallout: Arrests, detentions, suspicious books

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Civil liberties groups are demanding that the U.S. government disclose
information about hundreds of people detained after the Sep. 11 attacks:
http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47980,00.html

FOIA request on approximately 1,000 detainees:
http://www.aclu.org/congress/l102901a.html

Some detainees are people who made congratulatory telephone calls minutes
after attacks:
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/28/inv.attacks.calls.reut/index.html

Professors and other college staff members face censure for making
controversial comments or taking visibly symbolic positions in the
weeks following the terrorist attacks:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8688-2001Oct29.html

Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.) apparently wants to ban .50 caliber rifles:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200110\POL20011030c.html

The anti-terrorism bill that President Bush signed Friday could
restrict free speech:
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1089598

Phila. man hassled, detained, barred from flight because of book:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02675.html

Federal police prohibiting photos of government buildings -- in Jan. 2001,
a far quieter time:
http://www.mccullagh.org/image/d30-5/capitol-police.html
http://www.mccullagh.org/image/d30-5/pennsylvania-ave-setup-cop.html

---

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2001-10-25/cover.asp

   [...]
   
   I'd purchased a roundtrip ticket from Sacramento International to LAX
   to observe firsthand the unprecedented measures being taken to combat
   terrorism. There'd been more than a little fear and paranoia in
   Sacramento and I expected to find more of the same in Los Angeles.
   
   I didn't expect to be ordered to destroy photographs by an irate
   National Guardsman. I didn't expect the Los Angeles Police Department
   to confiscate and read the notes I'd taken on my trip. I didn't expect
   to be questioned by the FBI and detained for nearly three hours for no
   probable cause.

   [...]

---

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=102144
 
Tariq Ali: Karl Marx led to my arrest as a terrorist in Germany

   30 October 2001
    
   I was arrested at Munich airport at 7am yesterday. After one day of
   interviews and book signings and two days spent at a Goethe Institute
   seminar on "Islam and the Crisis", I was desperate for a cup of
   coffee. I checked in and soon my hand luggage was wending its way
   through the security machine.
   
   No metal objects were detected, but they insisted on dumping the
   contents of my bag onto a table. Newspapers, dirty underpants, shirts,
   magazines and books tumbled out in full view. Since news always
   reaches Germany a day after it has appeared in the US press, I thought
   the locals might be looking for envelopes containing powder in
   ignorance of FBI and CIA briefings that Osama bin Laden and Iraq were
   considered unlikely to be involved in the anthrax scare.There were no
   envelopes in my bag.
   
   The machine-minder brushed aside the copies of the Sued-deutsche
   Zeitung (SDZ), the International Herald Tribune and Le Monde
   Diplomatique. He appeared to be very interested in The Times Literary
   Supplement and was inspecting my scribbled notes on the margin of a
   particular book review when his eyes fell on a slim volume in German
   that had been handed to me by a local publisher. Since there had been
   no time to flick through the volume, it was still wrapped in
   cellophane. He grasped the text eagerly and then, in a state of some
   excitement, rushed it over to the armed policeman.
   
   The offending book was an essay by Karl Marx, On Suicide. It was the
   reference to suicide that had got the policemen really excited. They
   barely registered the author, though when they did real panic set in
   and there were agitated exchanges. The way they began to watch me was
   an indication of their state of mind. They really thought they had got
   someone. My passport and boarding card were taken from me, I was
   rudely instructed to re-pack my bag, minus the crucial "evidence" (the
   SDZ, the TLS and the offending text by Marx), and I was escorted out
   of the departure area and taken to the police headquarters at the
   airport.
   
   On the way there the arresting officer gave me a triumphant smile.
   "After 11 September, you can't travel with books like this," he said.

   [...]

---

Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 12:28:01 -0500
From: Duncan Frissell <frissell () panix com>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Praying for a Son to Be in Jail

Declan,

On the topic of the detentions:

There are those who hope their relatives are being held in secret by the
Feds:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/nyregion/29MATT.html?searchpv=past7days&pagewanted=print

Note that in NYC, the block of West Houston street between Varick and
Hudson Sts is still blocked because it fronts the INS detention center
in the Federal building that occupies the  block to the south.

http://www.mapquest.com/cgi-bin/ia_find?link=btwn/twn-map_results&aerial_photo_tab.x=1&aphoto=1&uid=u268p3p7u3mem2xd:tsgrrsgfr&SNVData=3mad3-96,hr%3br200y0%3d%3dt5u68x%24tw2%28%3aN%2bVB%10F%17BL%2bEJ%2b%13%17%2bH%13%14OXZ%2b%15M_WDN%2b%18BCZ%3d%11K_967nq%3a%10F%3dw7a1rz_%29zr2u4b_1.lq%286,qej%7cynbgmej,fwgf-d&pcat=

Also note that although circa 1K have been taken into custody, we don't
know how many are still in custody.  We know that some have been
released since they have gotten some ink.  The Saudi doctor from Texas
and Attorney Ron Kubie's local newstand owner have both been released.

Also, none of those being held have been charged with any crime so the
normal criminal procedure handling requirements have not come into
effect.  Everyone has been held on material witness or INS holds which
are civil holds that have very different procedures.  Civil procedure is
much slippier than criminal procedure.

Additionally, lots of those being held have been cleared of terrorism
"concerns" but are being held for the INS under some new zero tolerance
policy.  Convenient that they (apparently) haven't arrested any US
citizens.

DCF

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