Justice investigators: No abuses of Patriot Act
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Justice Department investigation into possible civil rights and civil liberties abuses under the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act found no abuses but a few instances of mistreatment of Muslim and Arab people, mainly at U.S. prisons, according to a report released Tuesday.
Among the 1,266 recent civil rights and civil liberties complaints received between June 14 and December 15, 2003, only 17 involved Justice employees and merited a full investigation, according to the report by Glenn A. Fine, the department's inspector general.
Of those, most involved excessive force, verbal abuse and other alleged mistreatment at Bureau of Prisons facilities.
Congress required the inspector general to investigate possible civil rights and civil liberties abuses directed against Muslims, Arabs and others as part of the Patriot Act, passed after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that expanded the government's anti-terrorism investigatory powers.
The report found no civil rights or civil liberties abuses specifically related to the Patriot Act, which allows more phone taps, expanded search powers and other surveillance techniques.
The report did find that an unidentified immigration agent improperly displayed his credentials to an Arab-American gas station attendant who said he was out of paper towels that the agent wanted. The agent also improperly checked government databases for information about the attendant.
In another instance, a Bureau of Prisons guard acknowledged that he had previously misled investigators and now acknowledged verbally abusing a Muslim inmate and throwing his Koran into a garbage can.
But investigators could not substantiate another inmate's claim that an immigration enforcement officer held a loaded gun to the inmate's head and threatened him while he was being transported.
Several other complaints remain under investigation, including one from a federal prisoner who claimed that a prison warden and some guards threatened to "gas" certain inmates following the September 11 attacks. An Egyptian man detained after the attacks said he was improperly forced to undergo a body cavity search in the presence of numerous people, including a woman.
In all, the inspector general checked 162 complaints involving Justice employees. Another 384 were against other federal agencies or state and local government entities and were referred to those agencies for investigation.
Most of the complaints -- 720 -- were found to be "unrelated" to civil liberties or civil rights. These included people who claim the government is broadcasting harmful signals to people or that its agents are intercepting their dreams, according to the report.
Copyright 2004 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
