On Jan. 11 Marie O'Rourke, assistant director of the Executive Office for US Attorneys, informed the civil rights group People for the American Way (PFAW) that the Department of Justice (DOJ) would charge "approximately $372,799" to search for records the group is seeking. PFAW filed its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in November 2003 for records involving "any request by the government to seal the proceedings of a case in any federal court arising from or relating to the detention of a post 9/11 immigrant detainee."

An "initial canvass of our 93 districts led to an estimate search time of 13,314.25 hours," billed at $28 an hour, O'Rourke told PFAW general counsel Elliot Mincberg in a letter--adding that the estimate could rise with the possible addition of "hundreds of hours" more in search time for the Southern Florida district and four other districts.

The letter came two days before the government was due to explain to a federal court in Washington why PFAW's lawsuit against the DOJ should be summarily denied. PFAW sued last Aug. 23 after the government first refused to release any records--citing federal privacy exemptions--then denied an appeal. PFAW has until Feb. 10 to respond to the fee letter. The DOJ lawyers have asked US District Judge John Bates to hold a hearing the week of Mar. 14.

PFAW hopes to produce a public report about government secrecy efforts against hundreds of unidentified detainees--including Algerian-born Florida restaurant waiter Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, detained in October 2001 for overstaying his student visa after the FBI claimed he had served food to some of the men involved in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Bellahouel filed a habeas corpus petition (M.K.B. v. Warden) in January 2002 in the Southern District of Florida; his case was kept secret and off the court dockets on orders of US District Judge Paul Huck. Bellahouel was freed around March 1, 2002, but continued to press his habeas case in an attempt to challenge the secrecy order. Bellahouel's name was discovered and made public by the Daily Business Review of Miami only because of a March 2003 clerk error at the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta [see INB 1/3/04]. [Daily Business Review 1/31/05]

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