Military

DATE=11/06/99

TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=TERRORISM/DETENTIONS

NUMBER=6-12533

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

INTERNET=YES

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: In pressing their hunt for the terrorists who attacked the United States in September, federal and state officials have arrested or detained more than 11-hundred people.

Now, many newspapers and civil rights advocates are beginning to worry that some of them are being deprived of their basic constitutional rights. We get a sampling of editorials on the subject now from _____________ in today's U-S Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Several newspapers and some civil rights advocacy groups are complaining that the prisoners are being denied rights including4 the right to a lawyer, the right to face their accusers, and the right to rapidly know the charges against them.

The federal government, in defending its action, says this terrorist threat is unlike any the nation has faced before, and that while no constitutional rights are being denied, extraordinary procedures are warranted. And it says secrecy about how many people are detained and where they are being kept is also necessary. We begin our sampling with the national daily newspaper USA Today, which is critical of the government's policy:

VOICE: For most of these detainees the U-S Justice Department adamantly refuses to release even the most basic information: Who are they? Why are they being held? Where? ... Certainly, the September eleventh terror attacks demand an aggressive law-enforcement response to track down those involved and to prevent future acts. But this isn't supposed to be a country in which the government can secretly imprison people. Such practices were among the reasons the colonists rebelled against the British.

TEXT: Excerpts from an editorial in USA Today.

The Los Angeles Times is similarly critical:

VOICE: The terrorist attacks were clear cause for an intense search for witnesses or accomplices. But national security, the presumptive reason for secrecy, does not justify withholding identities and other basic information about the detainees. ...There are wives who can't confirm that their husbands are in custody or learn where they are being held. In many cases family members who know a detained relative's location have had trouble getting in to visit.

TEXT: In Colorado, Denver's Rocky Mountain News ran this column by Mike Rosen who defended the extraordinary procedures, as necessary in this unprecedented period.

VOICE: We place great value on our civil liberties and appreciate what it took to win our constitutionally guaranteed rights and protections from oppressive government. It's with great reluctance and apprehension that we make any compromises in that area. And we will certainly be vigilant about abuses. But it must also be understood that security is a prerequisite for freedom. While a nation can have security without freedom -- the Soviet Union comes immediately to mind -- a nation cannot have freedom without security. It's regrettable but undeniable that the terrorist war against America has undermined both.

TEXT: From a column in Colorado's Rocky Mountain News.

Turning to the Midwest, The Detroit [Michigan] Free Press says that "even suspected terrorists deserve due process." And it making its case, the paper says:

VOICE: For weeks now, civil liberties organizations have been asking the Department of Justice to release the names of and evidence against the nearly 11-hundred people being held by the government since the September ... terrorist attacks. With their requests unanswered, they have been reduced to suing the government under the Freedom of Information Act to get information about missing people that should have been made routinely available. This is a troubling development.

F-B-I investigations require some degree of secrecy ... However, the government cannot keep secret whom they arrest, where they are being held, or the charges against them. Even suspected terrorists are protected by the Constitution, which says "No person shall be ...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

...The United States has long criticized other countries for human rights abuses, as it did when Argentine juntas made thousands of citizens simply disappear. The U-S government cannot now afford to remain silent as it rounds up "suspects" in droves, unless it wants to hand the terrorists victory.

TEXT: Thoughts of The Detroit Free Press.

Across Lake Erie, The Cleveland [Ohio] Plain Dealer is concerned about what it feels is laxness in the immigration laws as it applies to student and other visitor visas.

VOICE: ... last month's attacks have refocused attention... on immigration rules that need revising, tightening or enforcing. Those rules already require full background checks abroad before visas are issued, and Congress has directed the I-N-S to establish by two-thousand-and-three a system to track student visa violations. That doesn't mean either job is getting done. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers, for instance, traveled on Saudi passports, and several wealthy Saudis are known contributors to Osama bin Laden's coffers. Yet Saudi Arabia is notoriously uncooperative about background checks and terrorism investigations, and the State Department is notoriously quick to issue visas there.

Of the 800 or so people detained in the terrorist investigation, about half remain in detention because officials have discovered possible violations of criminal law as well as immigration law. ...Immigration attorneys note that many violations are "minor technicalities, minor overstays" that would have been overlooked prior to September eleventh. That was a poor reason not to enforce the law before September eleventh. It's no reason at all since then.

TEXT: On that note from Ohio's largest daily, we conclude this sampling of comment on the issue of detaining suspects after the terror attacks.

NEB/ANG/FC