Ex-CIA Chief to Represent Detained Iraqis

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey said Friday that he has agreed to help represent six Iraqis who worked to overthrow Saddam Hussein in a U.S.-backed coup but now face deportation to their homeland from Los Angeles.

Woolsey, now a Washington attorney in private practice, said he was approached for help in the case after a U.S. immigration judge in Los Angeles ruled last week that the exiles “pose security risks to the United States.”

The order by Judge D.D. Sitgraves relied heavily on classified testimony by FBI agents--testimony so sensitive that it was kept from the defendants and their attorneys, including those from the nonprofit Public Counsel Law Center in Los Angeles.

A 55-page document outlining her reasons was released, but her 92-page decision remains off-limits to the lawyers and the public. Although it is allowed in a narrow number of immigration cases, the use of secret evidence has drawn criticism in legal circles and in newspaper editorials.

“We have not been told what the charges are, let alone what the evidence that sustains the charges has been,” said Neils Frenzen, directing attorney for immigrants’ rights at the law center. “The only thing we have been told is that our clients are not suspected of being terrorists.”

Woolsey said defense attorneys asked for his help because “they were looking for a co-counsel that had security clearances” and, thus, arguable access to the evidence. As CIA director from 1993 to 1995, Woolsey said he retains top-secret status.

“I think that it’s important everyone who is subject to the American judicial system be treated fairly,” he said, adding that the legal Catch-22 was “certainly one striking feature” that prompted him to agree to offer his services for free.

The former CIA director’s participation “basically changes the whole dynamic of the case because . . . we believe he has all the clearances that will probably be required in this case,” said Daniel Levy, one of three attorneys, along with Frenzen, who met with Woolsey in his Washington law office Friday.

Woolsey said he will travel to Los Angeles next week to meet with the exiles--five Arabs and one Kurd--who are being detained at the Immigration and Naturalization Service lockup in San Pedro.

The defendants in the case say that they were leaders of two CIA-backed Iraqi groups that mounted an unsuccessful 1996 coup attempt against Hussein, who crushed the effort by sending troops into northern Iraq.

In the aftermath, the men were among the 6,000 dissidents brought to the United States to seek political asylum.

Although their wives and children were granted asylum, the six men were not. The government began deportation proceedings against them last March.

Lawyers say the men would face execution if sent back to Iraq.