Judge Rules Not to Release Names of Sept. 11 Detainees

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ruled the detainees’ names do not have to be released until an appeals court decides on the issue, which could take several months.

In an Aug. 2 ruling, Kessler had given the U.S. Justice Dept. 15 days to reveal the names, saying federal prosecutors did not demonstrate adequate need for a blanket secrecy policy. She said the names of detainees considered material witnesses in the U.S. terror investigation and those who do not wish to be identified would be exempt from the order.

Thursday’s decision gives the Justice Dept. more time to appeal Kessler’s original ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for National Security Studies were among the civil liberties organizations that sued to have the names disclosed.

Justice Dept. lawyers argued revealing the names would compromise the U.S. national security and aid America’s enemies during wartime. But Kessler said the al-Qaida terror network would likely already know if any of its operatives in the U.S. were missing.

The Justice Dept. told the court last week it planned to appeal the ruling, saying Kessler wrongly interpreted the need for secrecy. Federal attorneys also asked for a temporary stay of Kessler’s order.

Apart from periodic updates on the number of people still held in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the Justice Dept. has said little about the arrests. In June, the department said some 147 people were still being held, including 74 on charges involving immigration infractions.

The ruling is part of a continuing series of legal issues moving through the courts. In a separate ruling issued late last week, Kessler upheld the legality of the Treasury Department’s decision to seize the assets of the nation’s largest Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, last December.

Kessler said the government showed substantial evidence that the Texas-based group was not only a front for Hamas — the Palestinian militant group that has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide attacks against Israeli civilians — but was itself a terrorist group.