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

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Oct 31 2001 - 11:07:00 PST

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    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
    
    ---
    
    
    
    
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