Original Article Muslim inmate abuse probed Justice Dept. notes discriminatory acts at federal prison Charlie Savage Boston Globe Mar. 12, 2005 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General said Friday it had "found a disturbing pattern of discriminatory and retaliatory actions against Muslim inmates" by the warden and guards at an unnamed federal prison, one of a series of criticisms the internal watchdog leveled against the federal Bureau of Prisons in connection with its treatment of Muslims. Inspector General Glenn A. Fine also disclosed that an FBI agent sent an e-mail to field offices "identifying the names and addresses of the proprietors and customers of a Muslim-based Web site" along with instructions to "take whatever action it deemed appropriate" against local people on the list. The FBI later conceded that the e-mail was probably illegal, he said. The report was the latest in a series of semiannual reviews of civil rights and civil liberties violations required by a provision of the USA Patriot Act, the law enforcement powers enacted after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The new report comes a year after Fine disclosed that guards had beaten and verbally abused some of the hundreds of Muslim detainees swept up on immigration charges by the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks and held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. None of the detainees were found to have a connection to the attacks. Friday, Fine noted that even though he sent the results of the Brooklyn investigation to the Bureau of Prisons for its "review and appropriate disciplinary action" in December 2003, no corrections officer has been held accountable. "More than a year later, the . . . review still is ongoing, and the Bureau of Prisons still is considering appropriate disciplinary action," Fine wrote. Fine said his investigators uncovered a "disturbing pattern" of mistreatment against Muslim prisoners at another federal prison by "members of the prison's executive staff, including the warden." A spokesman for Fine declined to identify the prison to protect the privacy of those under investigation. Fine asked the Justice Department to prosecute prison officials for their actions, but the local US attorney's office declined to do so, the report said. He then forwarded the report to the Bureau of Prisons for "administrative action" against them. Investigators determined that Muslim inmates were denied transfers to other cells that would "facilitate their prayer requirements," while non-Muslims received similar transfers. Muslims were also "unfairly punished" if they complained about prison conditions or cooperated with the Inspector General investigation. "A Muslim inmate who had filed complaints relating to his treatment at the prison was placed in the Special Housing Unit for four months for what we determined were specious reasons," the report said. Ibrahim Cooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an Islamic civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, said he found the findings of the report "disturbing." But he said he was heartened that the findings were being examined.