The Constitution Project

***
REPORT ON POST-9/11 DETENTIONS

Released by the
LIBERTY AND SECURITY INITIATIVE OF THE
CONSTITUTION PROJECT

June 2, 2004
 MEMORANDUM

To: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States

From: Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union
Re: Addendum To American Civil Liberties Union Recommendations to the
Commission
Date: May 20,2004

This memorandum supplements the April 23 letter we sent to the Commission.

A. Openness and Judicial Review for USA PATRIOT Act Surveillance Powers

1. Ensure that greater information-sharing intended to tear down the so-called

wall between intelligence and criminal investigators does not result in the use of
FISA as an end run around criminal "probable cause" and other protections

Prior to the USA PATRIOT Act, an application for a FISA court order had to state that
the purpose of the search was to obtain foreign intelligence. (This was interpreted by
courts to mean the "primary purpose," not the sole purpose.) Section 218 of the USA
PATRIOT Act changed that requirement to a significant purpose. Because FISA's
surveillance and search standards are lower than what is required for criminal
surveillance, the standard will permit federal investigators much greater use of FISA
orders for domestic law enforcement purposes, bypassing stricter criminal standards. In
2002 and 2003, the number of FISA orders has skyrocketed and now exceeds the number
of criminal surveillance orders. Current law requires extremely minimal public reporting
on FISA while far more detailed information is available about the government's use of
its criminal surveillance powers.

The primary purpose test serves a critically important civil liberties interest in focusing
FISA surveillance on national security, and ensuring that FISA is not being used to do an
"end-run" around the Fourth Amendment in criminal investigations.

The Department of Justice has vastly overstated the extent to which the primary purpose
test affected information sharing. First, as former Attorney General Janet Reno testified
to the Commission, the rules in place prior to passage of the USA PATRIOT Act already
permitted the sharing of counter-terrorism information between criminal investigators
and intelligence officers in the vast majority of cases. In the relatively few cases where
restrictions did apply, Reno testified that they were not a serious impediment to the
government's counter-terrorism efforts. Former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke
made similar remarks on national TV shortly after he testified to the Commission. Clarke
indicated that the pre-PATRIOT Act law did not preclude the sharing of intelligence
information between the FBI and the CIA and said that in fact, "that happened every day
in my office."

Second, nothing in the law prior to the USA PATRIOT Act, including the primary
purpose test, prevented the CIA from telling the FBI that two terrorism suspects, Khalid
Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi, had entered the United States months before the 9-11
The Fifth Annual Report to the President and the Congress of the
Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for
Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction

V. FORGING AMERICA'S NEW

NORMALCY: Securing Our Homeland,
Preserving Our Liberty

15 December 2003
 Doors: International Students in the US Page 1 of 4

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE NOVEMBER 3, 2003

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ENROLLMENT GROWTH SLOWS IN 2002/2003,
LARGE GAINS FROM LEADING COUNTRIES OFFSET NUMEROUS
DECREASES
—India Remains The Top Sending Country-
— HE Online Survey Suggests Visa Application Process and Sluggish Global Economy
Are Affecting Fall 2003 Enrollments -

WASHINGTON D.C., November 3, 2003 -- After five years of steady growth, the number of
international students attending colleges and universities in the United States in 2002/03 showed only a
slight increase over the prior year, up less than 1%, bringing the 2002-03 total to 586,323, according to
Open Doors 2003, the annual report on international education published by the Institute of
International Education (HE) with support from the State Department's Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs.

"The Bureau is pleased to support the annual publication of Open Doors," said Patricia Harrison,
Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. "America is a welcoming nation and
keeping our doors open to men and women of good will from every part of the globe is vital to mutual
understanding and to our own well-being."

Although there were significant decreases in the number of students from some countries in 2002/03,
several major sending countries saw strong increases, including India, Korea and Kenya. Numbers
from China also increased, but at a reduced rate. For the second consecutive year, India, which
increased by 12% to 74,603 students, was the leading country of origin for international students in the
United States, followed by China (64,757, up 2%) and Korea (up 5% to 51,519). Mexico, at #7,
increased by 2% to 12,801 students, Hong Kong, at #15, increased by 4% to 8,076, and Kenya, at #16,
increased by 11% to 7,862. Canada, #6 with 26,513, was unchanged. Of the top 20 sending countries,
thirteen countries experienced a decrease in enrollment - with significant decreases coming from
Indonesia (down 10% to 10,432), Thailand (down 14% to 9,982), and Malaysia (down 11% to 6,595).
Students from the Middle East were down 10% from the previous year, with decreases of 25% each
from Saudi Arabia (4,175) and Kuwait (2,212) and 15% from the United Arab Emirates (1,792). The
combined total number of students coming from all countries in the Middle East is just 34,803, down
from 38,545 in the prior year.

HE is also releasing findings from a recent online survey of international education professionals
regarding what they are seeing on campus this fall (2003), to complement the more comprehensive
Open Doors census for 2002-03. The findings of the online survey would indicate that new security
procedures and economic factors do seem to be having some impact on foreign student enrollments,
with 46% of respondents reporting some declines in their total international student enrollments. Most
respondents (59%) attribute these declines to new visa applications processes, while an additional 21%
cite financial difficulties as the primary cause. Others report it as a combination of several factors,
including competition from other host countries. In addition, 45% of respondents report a decline in
the number of newly admitted international students for Fall 2003 compared to new students in Fall
2002.

Despite these declines, however, it is important to note that 54% of respondents reported either an
increase in foreign student enrollments (33%) or no change (21%), reinforcing the view that there is an
uneven effect that is being felt strongly by some campuses and some fields and more modestly or not

http://opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=36523 6/17/2004