Scores of Muslim men jailed as “material witnesses” in wake of 9/11 attacks

According to a joint report issued last month by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (HRW/ACLU), the Justice Department held the men under a 1984 federal law that permits the arrest and brief detention of material witnesses who have important information about a crime, and who might otherwise flee to avoid testifying before a grand jury or court.

The 101-page report, “Witness to Abuse: Human Rights Abuses under the Material Witness Law since September 11,” documents the cases of 70 men—all but one of them Muslim—who were rounded up under the guise of this law, but were treated as terrorist suspects. In particular, the government exploited the fact the statute does not put a specific limit on how long witnesses can be held.

Imprisoning as “witnesses” individuals who are in fact terrorism suspects sets a dangerous precedent for future use of this extra-legal government power to deprive citizens and non-citizens alike of their democratic rights. The harrowing stories of the men caught up in this dragnet provide further proof of the Bush administration’s wanton disregard for civil liberties and due process of law in its “war on terror” in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/witn-j13.shtml