The White House on Monday said the "lion's share" of the more than 1,100 people detained in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks on the US have been released -- sharply contradicting the Justice Department which says most are still being held.
As rights groups grow more vocal in their questions about the arrests, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer on Monday claimed that there were not many people still being held by the government.
"In fact the lion's share of the people are not still in custody," he told reporters. "Most of the people, the overwhelming number of the people were detained; they were questioned and then they've been released."
Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker, whose office has provided a running tally of the steadily growing number of people arrested or detained in connection with the investigation, has said the majority were still being held.
Tucker said she was not sure why Fleischer had different information and was trying to figure out which was correct.
As of Monday, she said 1,182 people had been arrested or detained in connection with the investigation. She did not have a specific number for those detained on immigration charges, but as of last Friday 185 of those arrested were being held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Tucker said on Friday that the INS detainees were arrested for allegedly violating immigration law and for having connections to terrorist grounds or activities.
"The department will seek to hold these people until the adjudication of their violation of immigration law," Tucker said.
Asked about concerns raised by legal experts and by some of the members of the Arab American community about the nature of the detention for some people, Fleischer said: "The president is fully satisfied that anybody who is continuing to be held is being held for a wise reason."
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