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Inconsistencies in Detainee Reassignment Procedures

Document Date: June 18, 2003

A September 11 detainee arrested in New York City arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) on November 5, 2001. More than six months later, on May 16, 2002, the FBI officially determined that the detainee was of “no investigative interest” regarding the September 11 attacks or terrorism in general.

However, a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Intelligence Liaison in the Strategic Information and Operations Center at FBI Headquarters wrote that “due to an internal FBI admin[istrative] error,” notification from the FBI to the BOP that the detainee had been cleared was not received by the BOP until June 13, 2002. The Cooksey memorandum for this detainee issued by BOP Headquarters arrived at the MDC on June 14, 2002.

The detainee was released into the MDC’s general population later that same day, more than seven months after his arrest and almost one month after the FBI had cleared him.

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