The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is reacting to a Justice Department report showing that post-9/11 detainees held at a New York facility suffered physical and verbal abuse by guards.

Inspector General Glenn A. Fine's supplemental report said officials at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, N.Y., illegally taped meetings between detainees and their lawyers, and used strip searches or restraints as forms of punishment. It said abuse included slamming prisoners against walls and painfully twisting their arms.

The allegations of abuse came from videotapes that federal prison officials had previously claimed were destroyed. (In the inspector general's initial report, he noted that none of the 762 Muslim and Arab aliens detained in post-9/11 sweeps were ever charged with a terrorism-related offense. SEE: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/03-06/index.htm )

SEE: "Tapes Show Abuse of 9/11 Detainees" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13497- 2003Dec18.html

"Report on September 11 Detainees' Allegations of Abuse" http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0312/index.htm

"Congress must take the initiative both in investigating these abuses and proposing legislation that would help prevent such mistreatment of prisoners," said CAIR Board Chairman Omar Ahmad.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 25 regional offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.

NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society.

To SUBSCRIBE to ISLAM-INFONET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/islam-infonet/