WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and seven other senior Justice Department officials have criticized the Bush administration's terror detention policy.
The group filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of Qatar native Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a suspected al-Qaida sympathizer arrested in Illinois.
In the brief, the officials suggested indefinite detention of U.S. terrorism suspects could become commonplace unless the courts intervene, the Washington Post reported.
Reno has kept a low profile since leaving the top job of the Justice Department in 2001, and law professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond said her addition to the pool was significant, as other signatories include two U.S. attorneys from the Reagan years along with prosecutors from the Clinton and Carter administrations and Philip Lacovara, a counsel to the Watergate special prosecutor.
"It carries more weight because these are high-ranking officials in several administrations from both parties," Tobias told the Post.
