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Justice Department can't confirm how many detainees released

By Terry Frieden
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Justice Department, FBI and immigration officials said Monday they do not know how many individuals are in custody as a result of the September 11 investigation, and could not confirm White House press secretary Ari Fleischer's statement that "the lion's share of the people [detained] are not still in custody."

The Justice Department's total of individuals detained or arrested as part of the ongoing terrorist investigation has climbed to 1,147, including 185 in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Justice officials have consistently declined to disclose how many of that total have been released, but said last week that "the vast majority" remain in custody.

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But Fleischer asserted that "the overwhelming number of the people were detained, they were questioned, and then they've been released."

The number of people jailed in the investigation becomes more important as defense attorneys and civil libertarians say government secrecy has made it difficult to learn who is in custody, and whether they have legal representation.

The INS can provide only the number of individuals it now has in custody, and has no information on how many it has released.

FBI officials refer calls to the Justice Department, which has provided the total of detainees.

The Justice Department also has acknowledged that some people who are in the custody of the FBI or other federal agency -- excluding the INS -- are being held as "material witnesses" with information important to the investigation. Defense lawyers say they believe that number is small, perhaps one or two dozen.

In addition, authorities have lodged federal charges unrelated to the terrorist attacks against more than 30 individuals . Several face charges of providing fraudulent information, possessing false documents, or having at least a casual connection to one or more of the hijackers.

One is Mohamed Abdi of Alexandria, Virginia, who appeared in federal court Monday and pleaded not guilty to forgery charges. The charges stem from Abdi allegedly forging his landlord's signature to keep monthly housing subsidy checks.

Abdi's phone number was scribbled on a map found in a rental car at Washington Dulles International Airport belonging to one of the suspected Pentagon suicide hijackers, court testimony showed.

In the same Virginia courtroom Monday, two others pleaded not guilty to charges that they had helped two hijackers fraudulently obtain Virginia identification cards from the Motor Vehicles Department. Court officials don't dispute defense attorneys' claims their clients knew nothing of the hijackers' plans.

A Pakistani citizen, Imtiaz Siddiqui, arrested in Michigan last week, is believed to have known two of the suspected hijackers at some point, officials said. Authorities said Monday he'll be sent in late November to North Carolina, where he has been indicted for telling a local elections board he was a U.S. citizen.