[Ppnews] Federal prisons seek curbs on communication

[Political Prisoner News]

Federal prisons seek curbs on communication of suspected terrorist inmates

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ Associated Press Writer

posted 7 April 2006

(AP) - LOS ANGELES-Wary of giving militants an opportunity to order 
attacks from behind bars, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is seeking to 
sharply restrict communication between jailed suspected terrorists 
and the outside world.

The proposal would let federal authorities limit phone calls, letters 
and visits for detainees with an "identifiable link to 
terrorist-related activity" even if they have not been convicted or 
charged with a crime.



Authorities back the communications crackdown as a way to safeguard 
national and public security, but civil libertarians say it could 
violate the constitutional rights of prisoners.

Though allowing communication with family members, lawyers, and court 
and government officials, the proposal released on Monday might 
completely block contact with the news media, said David Fathi, a 
senior attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"This is just using the boogie man of terrorism to silence prisoners 
and further seal the workings of a government agency from public 
scrutiny," he said.

Federal prison officials said they want to keep inmates from sending 
coded messages, a tactic promoted in an al-Qaida training manual to 
"communicate with brothers outside prison and exchange information 
that may be helpful to them."

Past cases of imprisoned terrorists contacting their followers 
underscore the need for the restrictions, the prison bureau says.

El Sayyid Nosair - imprisoned for life in a New York prison after the 
1990 shooting death of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the militant 
Jewish Defense League - allegedly urged his visitors to conduct 
terrorist operations.

And radical Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman exhorted others to wage 
jihad to obtain his release after he was sentenced to life in U.S. 
prison for conspiring to blow up New York City landmarks, officials say.

Currently, federal prison authorities can impose similar or tougher 
restrictions with a special administrative order from the U.S. 
attorney general.

The new measure would lower that threshold. Bureau of Prison 
officials could curb communications without that order, and could do 
so using their own intelligence, not just that of other federal agencies.

The proposal follows last year's federal indictment of four people in 
an alleged Southern California terrorist plot against U.S. military 
facilities and other Los Angeles-area targets.

Prosecutors say the scheme was masterminded by a California state 
prison inmate who founded a radical Islamic group while locked up.

Traci Billingsley, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman in Washington, 
said the security measure was one in a series since the Sept. 11 
terrorist attacks and unrelated to the California case.

"But that would be a good example of why this initiative is 
important," she said.

The bureau will make its final rule following a comment period ending 
in June. The U.S. Justice Department must sign off on it.

With 112 facilities, the federal Bureau of Prisons houses nearly 
190,000 inmates.

The Freedom Archives
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