Material-Witness Detentions
The U.S. Post-September 11 Antiterrorism Policy
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Government began a campaign of stepped-up antiterrorism investigations both abroad and in the United States. As part of this effort, Federal prosecutors relied on U.S. Code Section 3144, which gave them the power to arrest and detain individuals whom they considered to be material witnesses to a crime. One such arrest took place on March 16, 2003, when Abdullah al-Kidd was detained shortly before he boarded a flight from Dulles Airport in Virginia to Saudi Arabia, where he was to enroll at a university. Al-Kidd, a native-born U.S. citizen who converted…
