New prison unit holds lesser terrorism suspects
Federal lockup in Indiana imposes tight restrictions on prisoners' ability to
communicate with the outside world.
by Dan Eggen
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/02/25/25Prison.html
WASHINGTON
The Justice Department has quietly opened a new prison unit in Indiana that houses a
hodgepodge of second-tier terrorism inmates, most of them Arab Muslims, whose ability
to communicate with the outside world is tightly restricted.
At the Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute, Ind., all telephone calls and
mail are monitored, the number of phone calls is limited and visits are restricted to
a total of four hours per month, according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons rules. All
inmate conversations must be conducted in English unless otherwise negotiated.
What's this?The unit appears to be a less restrictive version of the supermaximum
facility in Florence, Colo., that holds some notorious terrorists, including al Qaeda
operative Zacarias Moussaoui and Unabomber Theodore Kacszynski.
The Indiana unit, by contrast, is part of a medium-security facility and includes
inmates set to be free in as little as two years. Prisons spokeswoman Traci
Billingsley said it won't be limited to inmates convicted of terrorism-related cases,
though all of its current prisoners fit that definition.
Prison officials said they already seek to fully monitor the mail and other
communications of all 213 "terrorist inmates" in the system. "By concentrating
resources in this fashion, it will greatly enhance the agency's capabilities for
language translation, content analysis and intelligence sharing," the bureau said.
The unit, in Terre Haute's former death row, has received 17 inmates since it was
launched in December and eventually will hold five times that number, officials said.
Defense lawyers and prisoner advocates complain that the unit's communication limits
are unduly harsh for inmates not considered high security risks. They also say the
unit's ethnic makeup has led to allegations of racial profiling.
"If they really believed these people are serious terrorists, they wouldn't be in
this unit," said David Fathi, staff counsel for the National Prison Project at the
American Civil Liberties Union. "They'd be in Colorado with (Atlanta Olympics bomber)
Eric Rudolph and the Unabomber and the rest of the people that the Bureau of Prisons
thinks are serious threats."
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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all *****-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.
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"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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