Report Criticizes Post-Sept. 11 Interviews

A congressional study released yesterday found that the Justice Department interviewed fewer than half the 7,600 foreign visitors it targeted for questioning after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and cast doubt on the effectiveness of a measure that angered many Muslim and civil liberties groups.

The General Accounting Office also said many of the foreign nationals who were asked for interviews did not believe they were "truly voluntary," and many of the participating law enforcement agents doubted the program's worth.

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), who requested the 32-page study and have been sharply critical of Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's antiterrorism policies, said in separate statements yesterday that the interviews have been ineffective and have alienated innocent people.

"The Justice Department cannot provide a shred of evidence that these 7,000 interviews led to a single piece of useful information about terrorist attacks on the United States," Conyers said. "It is now clear why the attorney general is afraid to let the American people see how he is running the war on terrorism; it is because his Justice Department is waging war on the rights of law-abiding residents."

Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock said the post-Sept. 11 interviews led investigators to people who knew some of the hijackers and to others who warranted scrutiny because they had taken flight training. A similar effort earlier this year with Iraqi immigrants and Iraqi Americans led to more than 100 tips that were passed on to the Defense Department, she said.

"Both of these projects were successful in developing meaningful investigative leads and working with the communities," Comstock said. "We've established a dialogue and two-way street with the Arab American and Muslim communities through these efforts."

The GAO report represents a rare glimpse into the highly secretive efforts of the Justice Department and FBI to identify and disrupt suspected terrorists in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Using immigration records, Justice officials in late 2001 identified thousands of foreign males whose demographic and visa profiles bore similarities to those of the Sept. 11 terrorists, the report said. The GAO found that, as of March, 43 percent of 7,602 people had been interviewed.

The report found that "none of the law enforcement officials with whom we spoke could provide examples of investigative leads that resulted from the project." The report also said that "more than half of the law enforcement officers we spoke with expressed concerns about the quality of the questions asked and the value of the responses obtained," and many believed the project had a negative effect on community relations.

In separate criticism of the Justice Department yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union said officials have taken too long to release the findings of an inspector general's investigation of the treatment of Sept. 11 detainees. Several sources familiar with the draft report said it includes significant criticism of the government's conduct.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said in an interview that continued delays "might have to do with the contents of the report."

But a senior Justice official called that allegation unfounded and said the report, which has been beset with delays, should be released soon.

The attorney general has the power under federal statutes to embargo inspector general reports to protect national security, ongoing investigations, intelligence matters or the identity of confidential sources. Officials said Ashcroft has not acted to do so in this case.