The abuses against the immigrant detainees who were rounded up after Sept. 11 have been amply detailed in a report released by the Justice Department's inspector general.
But the ultimate abuse, in our opinion, was the shroud of secrecy ordered by Atty. Gen. John D. Ashcroft over the entire process.
On Sept. 20, 2001, he directed the department's chief immigration judge to keep secret all information about the detainees. As a result, the government refused to disclose the names of those arrested and then closed their hearings to the public. This made any outside review of the Justice Department's actions virtually impossible; the department was not accountable to anyone outside the government until the inspector general's report was released this month.
And the report is only the tip of the iceberg. The inspector general examined the cases of only 119 out of the 762 aliens detained.
And it is clear from the Justice Department's "no apologies" response to the inspector general's report that it is not taking seriously the findings or recommendations.
Congress should demand that the Justice Department release the names of the detainees, and it should act to prohibit secret arrests and secret hearings in the future.
Unfortunately, at the House Judiciary Committee hearing, members never even addressed the secrecy of the arrests.
So this is going to keep happening, right?