On March 22 the New York Times reported that Mohamed Suleiman al Nalfi had been secretly jailed in New York City for four months. He left his home in Sudan last November after accepting a job offer in Amsterdam and receiving a plane ticket. Upon landing in Kenya he was arrested by government authorities there and placed under the custody of the FBI. According to the Times, al Nalfi was indicted for being an "early associate" of Saudi businessman Osama bin Laden, who the U.S. government claims heads an international "terrorist network."

The big business media portrays al Nalfi as a participant in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But so far he has been not charged with any role in the blasts. Four men are currently on trial in the Federal District Court in Manhattan for their alleged involvement in the explosions, including two who are charged with participating in a "global plot" against U.S. citizens.

One of the four men on trial, Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, was grabbed by FBI and Kenyan cops, interrogated for two weeks and coerced into a confession. Owhali said the U.S. agents told him that if he demanded an attorney he would be left in the hands of the Kenyan authorities where "you will be hanged from your neck like a dog."

U.S. government officials have not explained why they "kept Mr. al Nalfi's arrest secret for so long, but in the past, prosecutors have worked quietly, sometimes for many months, to win cooperation from terrorism suspects," the Times reported. Apparently unable to force a confession during "negotiations" with al Nalfi, they filed public charges against him. "I am not guilty," he said at his arraignment March 16.

"He was basically kidnapped by the FBI," said al Nalfi's lawyer, Marion Seltzer. "He has never been to this country, knows nobody in this country, and is basically being housed like an animal." She said al Nalfi is being held under 23-hour-a-day lockdown prison conditions.  
 
Growing use of 'secret evidence'
In a report last year before the U.S. Congress's National Commission on Terrorism, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) along with the Justice Department acknowledged using "secret evidence" in some 50 cases between 1992 and 1998. The ACLU report stated the government is currently using secret evidence in 12 cases.

"Virtually every recent secret evidence case that has come to public attention involves a Muslim or an Arab," said Gregory Nojeim, ACLU legislative counsel who presented the report. He said this "form of classified information often consists of mere rumor and innuendo...[and] is often unverified and unverifiable."

Secret evidence courts were established under the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act signed into law by former president William Clinton. The power to use secret evidence was expanded by the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, also signed by Clinton. Both laws target the rights of immigrants, including those who are legal permanent residents. Provisions in the two laws authorize the government to deport immigrants, deny asylum, and deny bond to immigrants who are tarred as "terrorists.'"

The government has been forced to release at least three Arab men jailed on secret evidence. In 1999 Nasser Ahmed, an Egyptian man imprisoned for three-and-a-half years, and Palestinian Hany Kiareldeen, in jail for 19 months, were both released after being accused of terrorism. "They're liars, and they know they are liars," said Nasser, referring to U.S. government officials when he walked out of a New York jail on Nov. 29, 1999.

Last December Mazen al-Najjar, a Palestinian jailed by the INS on secret evidence, was released in the wake of public outrage. He spent three-and-a-half years in prison without being charged with a crime.

Meanwhile, Washington's stepped-up antiterrorism propaganda has broadened to include warnings about so-called terrorists who may allegedly attempt to use computer technology to launch a "cyberterrorist attack." At a March 22 forum on Internet security, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice stated, "Today the cyber economy is the economy. Corrupt those networks and you corrupt this nation."

The day before Rice spoke an article appeared in the Washington Post asserting that "an attack from a terrorist group, rogue nation, disgruntled former employee, or hacker could destabilize the nation's economy unless there is closer cooperation among federal agencies and better coordination between private businesses and the multi-agency National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), which is headed by the FBI."

Ronald Dick, director of the NIPC, the FBI's "cyber-crime unit" that was set up by the Clinton administration three years ago, introduced a "new NIPC team," that includes representatives from the CIA and the Defense Department. Rear Admiral James Plehal, a naval commander, was named deputy director of the NIPC on March 20, according to the Washington Post.

"Information warfare is obviously something the United States, the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the CIA, the FBI, and our private-sector partners are very concerned with, Dick said.

National Security Council adviser Richard Clarke, who heads the "counterterrorism efforts" for the Bush administration, has stated that "an attack on American cyberspace is an attack on the United States" that should trigger a military response. Clarke served as "counterterrorism czar" under the Clinton administration.

In January Clinton announced the creation of the National Counterintelligence Executive with a "broad mandate to identify potential security threats and vulnerabilities," the Times reported. The Wall Street Journal said the duties of the counterintelligence "czar" who heads up the new spy outfit will include "identifying and protecting critical corporate secrets and private-sector assets."  
 
 
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