Dragnet Entangles Mystery Australian
The Age
Friday November 30, 2001
WASHINGTON
America's mass detention of foreigners on immigration charges has ensnared one Australian, but his identity, whereabouts or the allegations against him are unknown.
The Australian embassy in Washington acknowledged yesterday that it had no idea that an Australian was among 548 foreigners rounded up after the September 11 terrorist strikes until the Justice Department released bare details about the detainees this week.
Under a new approach that has appalled civil liberty groups and some members of Congress, the US is keeping the foreigners in custody indefinitely.
The Australian national was detained on October 17 under the Immigration and Nationality Act's catch-all provision about people ``present in the United States in violation of law".
An Australian embassy spokesman said the embassy was now making inquiries with the Justice Department about whether the person was offered consular access, as required under international law.
The person's sex is unknown, but the detainees are mostly men of Arab and Muslim background. Pakistanis comprise the biggest group, with 208 in custody, and 74 detainees are Egyptian. Almost all are accused of overstaying their visas, giving false information or entering the US without permission.
America's dragnet tactics have angered several foreign governments, which have accused the administration of heavy-handedness about mostly minor immigration irregularities that normally do not involve detention. The detainees are separate from the 104people charged with criminal offences, almost all of who have been named.
At least seven embassies have reportedly complained about the slow processing of the cases and the failure of the State Department to inform foreign governments that their nationals are in custody.
Under the Vienna Convention of 1963, governments that detain foreigners have to give them the option of notifying their government's representative. The Australian embassy spokesman said it was possible the Australian national had not asked for consular help. ``We only become involved if people request it," he said.
A coalition of 21 Arab-Americans and human rights groups have demanded that the US Government provide a list of people jailed and where they are being held. ``It is like the government has declared war on foreigners," said Jeanne Butterfield of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Attorney-General John Ashcroft was irked when pressed about the detainees this week, saying he would not release their names because he didn't want to ``blacklist" them and because some were members of the alQaeda terrorist group.
``I am not interested in providing, when we are at war, a list to Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network of the people we have detained that would make any easier their effort to kill Americans," Mr Ashcroft said.
Yesterday, Assistant Attorney-General Mike Chertoff testified before Congress that the government's detention of hundreds of people was justified to prevent ``sleeper cells" planning further terrorist attacks.
Democrats and some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed their dismay over the government's exercise of new legal powers, and grilled Mr Chertoff with often-testy questions for more than three hours.
In particular, senators criticised the administration's plans to try suspected terrorists before secret military tribunals, and the detention of hundreds of unnamed suspects in the investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Senators also wanted to know why the Justice Department was eavesdropping on phone calls between some suspects in federal custody and their lawyers, and why some of the changes had been implemented by the Justice Department without their input.
© 2001 The Age