From The Associated Press, 6/22/03:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030622_546.html

Gov't Report Backs Detainee Abuse Claims

Justice Department Report Finds 'Significant Problems' With Treatment
of Nearly 800 Detainees

NEW YORK --

Yasser Ebrahim says his introduction to the federal prison system came
from guards slamming his head into a wall while calling him a
"terrorist."

Shakir Baloch says guards at the same lockup warned him:

"You will be here the rest of your life."

Those allegations and others including random beatings made by Muslim
men held on immigration charges after the Sept. 11 attacks had been
routinely dismissed by federal officials.

Earlier this month, however, the Justice Department's Office of the
Inspector General issued a report saying it found "significant
problems" with the treatment of nearly 800 detainees nationwide,
including abusive conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in
Brooklyn where Ebrahim and Baloch were held.

The report cast a critical light on the little-known federal lockup on
the waterfront, and breathed life into a pending civil rights lawsuit
filed by Ebrahim, Baloch and five others against Attorney General John
Ashcroft, prison personnel, FBI supervisors and other officials.

The plaintiffs are seeking class action status.

"What we said about all the suffering was true," Ebrahim, 31, said in
a phone interview from his native Egypt.

"The government was doing its best to deny it."

Both Ebrahim and Baloch were held for eight months without being
charged with a crime, then were deported.

"I'm owed an apology," said Baloch, 41, a Pakistani-born doctor with
Canadian citizenship.

Their lawyers have amended the lawsuit, filed last year, to
incorporate the inspector general's findings.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims federal officials
violated their rights by imprisoning them on the basis of their race
and religion.

__________________________________________________ _____

It's payback time.

Harry