Bellahouel's "Secret 9/11 Florida case" before high court

posted by ewing2001 on Sunday November 02, @08:24AM

The secret Florida Case:
"Miami" Nicholas Bergonzoli and Mohamed Bellahouel (Dan Christensen, "Secrecy Within") are back in the news, still ignored by mainstream media and heavily censored by the Supreme Court.
Mohamed Bellahouel was a waiter at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Delray Beach, Fla., where he apparently served food to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers who dined at the restaurant.

Secret 9/11 case before high court

Findlaw CSM -October 30, 2003

MIAMI - It's the case that doesn't exist. Even though two different federal courts have conducted hearings and issued rulings, there has been no public record of any action. No documents are available. No files. No lawyer is allowed to speak about it. Period.

Yet this seemingly phantom case does exist - and is now headed to the US Supreme Court in what could produce a significant test of a question as old as the Star Chamber, abolished in 17th-century England: How far should a policy of total secrecy extend into a system of justice?

Secrecy has been a key Bush administration weapon in the war on terrorism. Attorney General John Ashcroft warns that mere tidbits of information that seem innocuous about the massive Sept. 11 investigation could help Al Qaeda carry out new attacks.

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Yet this highly unusual petition to the high court arising from a Miami case brings into sharp focus the tension between America's long tradition of open courts and the need for security in times of national peril. At issue is whether certain cases may be conducted entirely behind closed doors under a secret arrangement among prosecutors, judges, and docket clerks.

While secret trial tactics have reportedly been used by federal prosecutors to shield cooperating drug dealers, it's unclear whether the high court has ever directly confronted the issue. But that may change if they take up MKB v. Warden (No. 03-6747).

What's known about the case

This is among the first of the post-Sept. 11 terrorism cases to wend its way to the nation's highest tribunal. There was no public record of its existence, however, until the appeal was filed with the clerk of the US Supreme Court.

A federal judge and a three-judge federal appeals-court panel have conducted hearings and issued rulings. Yet lawyers and court personnel have been ordered to remain silent.

"The entire dockets for this case and appeal, every entry on them, are maintained privately, under seal, unavailable to the public," says a partially censored 27-page petition asking the high court to hear the case. "In the court of appeals, not just the filed documents and docket sheet are sealed from public view, but also hidden is the essential fact that a legal proceeding exists."

Despite the heavy secrecy, a brief docketing error led to a newspaper report identifying MKB by name in March. The report said MKB is an Algerian waiter in south Florida who was detained by immigration authorities and questioned by the FBI.

MKB's legal status remains unclear, but it appears unlikely from court documents that he is connected in any way to terrorism.He has been free since March 2002 on a $10,000 bond.

The case is significant because it could force a close examination of secret tactics that are apparently becoming increasingly common under Attorney General Ashcroft. In September 2001, he ordered that all deportation hearings with links to the Sept. 11 investigation be conducted secretly. In addition, the Justice Department has acknowledged that at least nine criminal cases related to the Sept. 11 investigation were being cloaked in total secrecy.

MKB v. Warden is the first indication that the Justice Department is extending its total secrecy policy to proceedings in federal courts dealing with habeas corpus - that is, an individual's right to force the government to justify his or her detention.

law.com - Article
... But in an unusual move, the public copy of Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel's petition to
the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari is heavily censored, with entire ...
www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1063212087029 - 31k - Nov 1, 2003 - Cached - Similar pages

law.com - Article
... of the South Florida sunshine is an apparent habeas corpus petition stemming from
an immigration detention case brought by the Algerian, Mohamed Bellahouel. ...
www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1052440717444 - 38k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.law.com ]

Behind the Homefront
... 11 DETAINEE'S HABEAS PROCEEDINGS Dan Christensen of the Miami Daily Business Review
reports the story of Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, an Algerian-born waiter in ...
www.rcfp.org/behindthehomefront/index.php?list=660 - 10k - Nov 1, 2003 - Cached - Similar pages

Secret Dockets
... It was only through a court clerk's mistake that the Miami Daily Business Review
discovered the case of Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, who apparently filed suit in ...
www.rcfp.org/secretjustice/secretdockets/pg1.html - 9k - Nov 1, 2003 - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.rcfp.org ]

BALASUBRAMANIA'S MANIA: STAR CHAMBER II A
... In one case the court itself whose records had originally reflected a hebeas petition
brought by Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, one of many Arab and Arab-Americans ...
www.balasubramani.com/archive/000171.html - 11k - Cached - Similar pages

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