9/11 Lawsuits For The Justice Department?
By Viveca Novak
On Monday, the department's Inspector General is expected to release a report that will be critical of the government's roundup of nearly 800 individuals on immigration charges after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. The report, according to someone who is familiar with it, will criticize officials for holding detainees for lengthy periods even when it was increasingly clear they had nothing to do with terrorism, and for blocking many detainees from normal immigration hearing procedures. Another portion of the document will say that some detainees were not able to get access to lawyers.
The Inspector General's office said last July that the report should be ready by October 2002. In January of this year, it said its findings were complete and the report should be out shortly. It's unclear why the report has taken so long to be finalized, but sources say that there were discussions within the administration about the feasibility of delaying its release.
Among the officials who are most likely to be named in lawsuits, and thus who may be seeking individual counsel, are Justice Department Criminal Division head Michael Chertoff, former DOJ Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh and former Immigration and Naturalization Service head James Ziglar, all of whom were architects of the roundup policy. Plaintiffs have been waiting for the IG report to be issued, believing - apparently accurately - that it could provide them with more ammunition for their complaints.
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