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 <frissellat_private> To: declanat_private 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 --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. 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