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Politics : Piffer Thread on Political Rantings and Ravings -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HG who wrote (4872)	11/30/2001 1:07:32 AM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14610

now, that is very interesting.

To: HG who wrote (4872)	11/30/2001 1:08:45 AM
From: HG	Respond to of 14610

Embassy caught off-guard by terror charge against Indians Indo-Asian News Service Washington, November 29 The Indian embassy in Washington appears to have been caught off-guard by the latest revelations by the U.S. Justice Department that 20 of the more than 600 people apprehended in connection with the September 11 terrorist attacks are of Indian origin. The detention of the 20, out of a total of 641 people charged or held, was revealed by Attorney General John Ashcroft at a briefing November 27. An embassy official said: "This information has come out this morning (Wednesday). It is obviously a decision Mr. Ashcroft has taken only now. We don't have any official reaction yet." The official, who did not wish to be named, said: "We had put in a formal request with the U.S. State Department asking how many Indians were in custody. We have not yet received a response." Ashcroft gave details of 93 of the detainees and said of the remaining 548, a majority was from Middle Eastern countries. The list also includes, besides the 20 Indians, 208 Pakistanis, six Bangladeshis and one Nepali. On two earlier cases involving two men from Andhra Pradesh, the Indian consulate in New York and the embassy here had been cooperating with U.S. authorities. Officials at the Indian consulate in New York had put in requests with the eight Immigration and Naturalisation (INS) offices within their jurisdiction at least three weeks ago, one official said. "Even before these press reports, we had written to all INS offices in our jurisdiction to respond about anybody of Indian origin. Only one had responded in our jurisdiction saying they had nobody of Indian origin." An Indian embassy official said each case would be treated individually depending on the situation. "Depends on what are the charges or the crime. In the case of the two people (from Andhra Pradesh) the information was being shared. In the other cases I can't hazard a guess. Usually they do work with our consulates. It is basically consulate territory," the official said. The new measures under which foreigners can be detained has come under rising criticism from civil rights organisations as well as members of Congress. About 1,100 foreigners have been detained since September 11. President George W. Bush's earlier order allowing secret military tribunals to try non-citizens has been criticised both by Democrats and Republicans, the Justice Department's new ability to eavesdrop on conversations between defence lawyers and clients has also been under fire from both the left and the right. But the Bush administration has defended itself on grounds that "extraordinary times require extraordinary measures." Senate majority leader Democrat Tom Dashcle called for a need to balance rights with the need for apprehending suspected terrorists. "We are all very concerned about the spread of terrorism," he told TV channel Fox News. "But we have to ask ourselves what the balance is, how do you do that and ensure that we don't trample on the constitutional rights that we have fought to protect for over 200 years." The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and think tanks have sounded alarm over the expanded powers of the administration and law enforcement forces. Recently, the Justice Department ordered law enforcement agencies to interrogate a racially profiled segment of non-citizens - about 5,000 males of Arab and other ethnic origin between the ages 18-33 who had come into the country after January 1, 2001, even though they were not under suspicion. This came under scathing attack both from minorities and others. Oregon state, a maverick on other issues as well, refused to oblige the Justice Department on this new order maintaining it was contrary to the state's charter of rights. Ashcroft's about-face in revealing the profile of those detained comes after mounting criticism about the expanded federal and law enforcement powers. Otherwise, barring information on an illegal immigrant from Pakistan, Muhammad Rafiq Butt, who died of heart attack while in custody at the Hudson County jail in New Jersey, and two persons of Indian origin, Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammad Javeed Asmat, no information had been forthcoming from the Justice Department.