US Attorney General John Ashcroft disclosed Wednesday that the government had apprehended suspects who were believed to have had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
He said that three Arab men who lived in Michigan had been found in possession of airport diagrams, false immigration forms, a fraudulent US visa and a false alien identification card -- and that they were "suspected of having knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks."
Investigating officials previously identified the three as suspects in the September terrorist attacks, but said there had been no evidence to tie them directly to the hijacking plans. They said that in his comments Wednesday, Ashcroft was apparently referring to a diagram for an airport in Amman, Jordan.
Ashcroft cited their detention as proof of the value of a nationwide effort by the federal law enforcement agencies to round up immigrants with possible ties to terrorists.
The Justice Department also announced that, as part of a broad immigration crackdown, it had placed 46 groups on a list of suspected terrorist organizations -- whose members or supporters would be barred from entering the US.
The move, required under an anti-terrorism bill signed into law by US President George W. Bush last week, greatly expanded the number of groups whose members would, in most cases, automatically be denied an American visa.
Among those added to the watch list were several Middle Eastern charitable organizations and food companies accused of funneling money to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization.
The three men in Michigan had previously been identified by law enforcement officials as Arab immigrants who were believed to be part of al-Qaeda and whose suspicious belongings had been found in a Detroit apartment last month.
On Monday, Ashcroft issued a public warning of imminent terrorist attacks over the next week. He suggested Wednesday that the threat had not eased.
"I have no reason to indicate that there is any reason for people not to be as careful as we have asked them to be," he said.
Other law enforcement officials have said that the warning resulted from intelligence suggesting that bin Laden associates had been intercepted talking about imminent terrorist attacks against the US.
The government's roundup of immigrants has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups and from some members of Congress. Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Representative John Conyers of Michigan, both Democrats, wrote to Ashcroft on Wednesday, asking him to list the identities of the detained immigrants and the charges against them.
The lawmakers asked that the Justice Department "take all steps to ensure that their fundamental constitutional rights are protected."
So far, more than 1,000 people have been taken into custody under the program, many of them on relatively insignificant immigration charges.
"It is difficult for a person in jail or under detention to murder innocent people or to aid or abet in terrorism," Ashcroft said. "As a nation of immigrants, America welcomes friends from other countries who wish to visit, to study, to work. But as Sept. 11 vividly illustrates, aliens also come to our country with the intent to do great evil."
Ashcroft offered a detailed explanation of the government's "spitting on the sidewalk" policy, in which immigrants suspected of terrorist ties are apprehended for even minor, unrelated violations, in order to take them off the streets.
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