By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES- Wary of militants ordering attacks from behind bars, the federal Bureau of Prisons is seeking to sharply restrict communication between suspected terrorist inmates and the outside world.
The proposal, posted this week on the Federal Register, says the policy would let federal authorities limit phone calls, letters and visits for detainees with an “identifiable link to terrorist-related activity” even if they haven’t been convicted or charged with a crime.
Authorities back the communications crackdown as a way to safeguard national and public security. Civil libertarians say it could violate First Amendment rights.
Though allowing communication with family members, lawyers and court and government officials, the proposal might completely block contact with news media, said David Fahti, 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.
The proposal said the prison bureau wants 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 proposal said.
El Sayyid Nosair _ imprisoned for life in a New York prison after the 1990 shooting death of the militant Jewish Defense League’s founder _ 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 order from the attorney general.
The new measure would let Prisons Bureau officials curb communications without that order, and by using their own intelligence, not just that of other federal agencies.
The proposal follows last year’s federal indictment of four people in a 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, 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 posted the proposal Monday and will make its final rule following a comment period ending in June. Justice Department approval is required.
With 112 facilities, the Bureau of Prisons houses nearly 190,000 inmates.
____
On the Net: