LAWRENCE CO. Officials seek to protect records

The suit says the apartment was searched because the renter is Arabic.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
PITTSBURGH -- Federal prosecutors are trying to block an Egyptian-born doctor from questioning FBI officials about the agency's role in searching his apartment after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Basem Hussein, 37, filed a civil rights lawsuit against Sherri Lynn Wilson, the manager of his Lawrence County apartment; and the Ohio real estate company Universal Development Management Inc., Liberty Township, after Wilson notified authorities about an expensive computer and a flight manual for a Boeing 737 in the radiologist's apartment after the attacks.
The flight manual was a popular flight simulator video program, said Hussein's attorney, Craig Fishman.
In his lawsuit, Fishman contends that U.S. Magistrate Judge Francis Caiazza had issued a search warrant of Hussein's apartment "based on false and misleading information." Hussein was never charged.
The FBI, the U.S. Postal Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, local police and the Youngstown Bomb Squad were brought in to search the apartment.
Fishman wants the magistrate to order FBI Special Agent Denise Valentine to turn over information related to an investigation of Hussein, particularly Wilson's statements. However, the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh has filed a motion to block the request.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Ross Haywood filed a motion, contending the information isn't authorized for release. Caiazza has given attorneys until June 27 to respond.
FBI's response
According to court records, FBI Chief Division Counsel Jeffrey Killeen wrote in a letter that releasing the FBI's files could interfere with a grand jury investigation and a trial related to the terrorist attacks.
"The disclosure of the FBI information you seek would reveal investigatory records compiled for law enforcement purposes, and may interfere with enforcement proceedings -- including, but not limited to, one case related to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, that is proceeding to trial later this year," Killeen wrote.
He also said the information may not be revealed under the Privacy Act without the prior written consent of the individual or by court order.
FBI spokesman William Crowley said he couldn't comment about Hussein's case.
Hussein's lawsuit says Wilson entered his apartment illegally and maintains that federal authorities searched his apartment because he is Arabic. He is suing for compensatory and punitive damages. Wilson's lawyer, John Kwasneski, was not available Tuesday to comment.
Hussein, a Canadian citizen who has lived in the United States and Canada since he was 6, lost his job at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, N.M., within days after the search. He now lives in Coraopolis.
He moved to Neshannock Township, Lawrence County, in 1999, when he worked for six months at Jameson Hospital.
Fishman said he understands that federal authorities have a right to withhold some information for security reasons, but he wants to determine whether other documents can be admitted into evidence.