Investigators find no abuses of human rights in legislature

WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department investigation into possible civil rights and civil liberties abuses under the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act found no abuses but a few instances of mistreatment of Muslim and Arab people, mainly at U.S. prisons, according to a report released Tuesday.\nAmong the 1,266 recent civil rights and civil liberties complaints received between June 14 and Dec. 15, 2003, only 17 involved Justice employees and merited a full investigation, according to the report by Glenn A. Fine, the department's inspector general.\nOf those, most involved excessive force, verbal abuse and other alleged mistreatment at Bureau of Prisons facilities.\nCongress required the inspector general to investigate possible civil rights and civil liberties abuses directed against Muslims, Arabs and others as part of the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that expanded the government's anti-terrorism investigatory powers.\nThe report found no civil rights or civil liberties abuses specifically related to the Patriot Act, which allows more phone taps, expanded search powers and other surveillance techniques.\nThe report did find that an unidentified immigration agent improperly displayed his credentials to an Arab-American gas station attendant who said he was out of the paper towels the agent wanted. The agent also improperly checked government databases for information about the attendant.\nA Bureau of Prisons guard acknowledged he had previously misled investigators and now acknowledged verbally abusing a Muslim inmate and throwing his Quran into a garbage can.\nInvestigators could not substantiate another inmate's claim that an immigration enforcement officer held a loaded gun to the inmate's head and threatened him while he was being transported.\nSeveral other complaints remain under investigation, including one from a federal prisoner who claimed that a prison warden and some guards threatened to "gas" certain inmates following the Sept. 11 attacks. An Egyptian man detained after the attacks said he was improperly forced to undergo a body cavity search in the presence of numerous people, including a woman.\nThe inspector general checked 162 complaints involving Justice employees. Another 384 complaints were filed against other federal agencies or state and local government entities and were referred to those agencies for investigation.\nMost of the complaints were found to be "unrelated" to civil liberties or civil rights. These included people who claim the government is broadcasting harmful signals to people or that its agents are intercepting their dreams, according to the report.