US Quickly Repatriating Pakistanis Held After Sept. 11

NEW YORK, March 7 — The Justice Department is removing hundreds of Pakistani detainees from the United States at a "hectic" pace and U.S. officials have told the Pakistani government that most of those arrested immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks will be returned home by the end of next month, a Pakistani official said today.

The official, Imran Ali, the Pakistani consular officer who oversees the detainee issue, said about 130 captives have been deported, released on bond or have agreed to return to Pakistan voluntarily in recent weeks. He said all but about a dozen of the remaining "140 or 150" Pakistani detainees are to be freed now that U.S. authorities have concluded that "absolutely none had links to 9-11."

The steady departure of the Pakistanis appears to be the largest known release of detainees since the government launched its terror investigation after the attacks on New York and Washington. But it is impossible to be certain, because the government has detained and moved the captives in total secrecy.

Officials of at least one other embassy, that of Turkey, said today that Turkey's cadre of detainees had dropped significantly in the past month, and immigration lawyers said they had also heard that detainees were being released at a faster pace.

The law enforcement dragnet has come under repeated criticism from civil libertarians, immigration advocates and Muslim groups because of the length of some of the detentions, the secrecy surrounding the more than 1,200 people who have been jailed in the past six months and the fact that the vast majority have been held on charges unrelated to terrorism. Last month, the Justice Department said that the number of detainees in custody for alleged immigration violations had been reduced to 327. Another group of more than 100 foreign nationals faces criminal charges unrelated to the terror probe.

The release of the Pakistanis follows the February visit to Washington of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who urged President Bush to expedite cleared detainees' departures.

Justice Department officials said last night that they were not aware of any special arrangements to speed the release of Pakistanis, and said they do not keep track of deportations by nationality.

Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which conducts removals, said the United States and Pakistan negotiated an agreement in December and January under which Pakistani officials — instead of INS agents — would escort some detainees back home because of security restrictions that prevented U.S. government personnel from traveling to Pakistan at the time. Ali said that agreement was negotiated by Pakistani ambassador Maleeha Lodhi in discussion with the Justice Department.

"A number of Pakistanis were moved . . . under that agreement," said Bergeron. "But we're not confirming any numbers, nor are we confirming any projections."

Bergeron said the security restrictions have since been lifted and INS agents have escorted Pakistanis, as well as detainees from other countries, on return flights, but he declined to say how many detainees had been escorted.

Ali, the Pakistani consul, said about 30 Pakistani detainees have been been returned home on 13 or 14 "escorted flights" accompanied by Pakistani officials. Another 100 were escorted to planes by U.S. immigration officials and allowed to return to Pakistan on their own because they were not considered flight risks, he said. The flights have occurred without incident, said Ali.

Representatives of other nations with large numbers of citizens detained in the terrorism investigation said yesterday that the United States has not made explicit commitments to transfer their detainees home or told their governments when they would be freed.

Saudi and Yemeni embassy officials said they have not noticed any significant acceleration in the release of their citizens from jails or immigration facilities. Nor, they said, have U.S. diplomatic or law enforcement officials told them there has been any shift in the administration's detention policies.

Turkish Embassy officials said, however, that they have noticed a recent upsurge in detainees released from custody. Of the 69 Turkish nationals known to have been held as part of the terrorism probe, just eight are still jailed, embassy figures show. The rest have been deported or released on bond pending court hearings on their immigration cases.

The only figures the Justice Department has provided about the detainees' nationality indicates that as of about three months ago, Pakistan had the greatest number of citizens held on immigration charges, followed by Egypt, Turkey and Yemen. A compilation of detainees by The Washington Post, which also included people held on criminal charges or as material witnesses to the investigation, showed that Saudi Arabia ranked high among countries with citizens in U.S. custody. Most of those detainees were held on minor immigration violations such as overstaying their visas while U.S. authorities determined whether they had links to terrorists.

Yesterday, representatives of the Saudi, Turkish and Yemeni embassies in Washington said that they had not received any commitments from U.S. officials as to when detainees from their countries would be released. Egyptian Embassy officials did not return telephone calls.

A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy, said the number of detainees deported or otherwise released from custody increased slightly — to 25 in February, from 15 in January and 12 in December — and that about three dozen remain in detention. At the Yemeni Embassy, Yahya Alshawkani, deputy chief of the mission, said that fewer than a half-dozen of the approximately 40 known detainees from that country have been released. "The majority are still held," he said.

The number of Turkish citizens in custody has "been reduced dramatically" since the beginning of February from 69 to eight, said Mehmet Ali Bayar, political counselor for the Turkish Embassy.

"If you ask me if we made a specific arrangement, cut a deal, or got a special agreement, no," Bayar said. But he added that Turkey has been engaged in quiet but intensive diplomacy with U.S. law enforcement and diplomatic agencies since first learning that Turkish citizens were being detained, trying to secure access to detainees, guarantees of proper treatment, and information about their status. "We have been accommodated very well by the U.S. agencies," he said.

Regis Fernandez, a New Jersey immigration lawyer who has represented several detainees, said the reports of increased removals were consistent with what he has experienced recently. Last week, he said, the INS released six Pakistani detainees he had represented, shortly after an INS attorney told him "there was a new policy."

"He told me that they were moving people who were not slated for criminal prosecution," said Fernandez.

Ali, the Pakistani consular officer, said the Pakistani releases have followed high-level discussions between Pakistan and the United States over the treatment of the detainees and how they should be processed. He said Musharraf raised the issue with Bush first in November and again last month, and the issue has been discussed constantly by Justice Department officials and Lodhi.

Ali said he could not be certain of the numbers because of the U.S. government's secrecy, but he estimated that the recent releases had reduced the number of Pakistanis jailed to about 140 or 150 — down from a high of about 300. Of those, he said, almost all had committed minor immigration violations after arriving here as "economic visitors who wanted to make 1,500 bucks a month and send the money home to their families."

Ali said U.S. officials had informed the Pakistani government that "all of the immigration detainees have been cleared by the FBI." He said that left about a dozen other people who were being held on criminal charges unrelated to the terrorism probe or as material witnesses. Ali said it was still uncertain when those people would be released.

Ali said there were a few others who also would probably stay to appeal a decision to send them back to Pakistan.

"Some of course do not want their American dream to end and continue to fight this," he said.

Staff writer Dan Eggen contributed to this report.