Feds Order Some Fla. Records Sealed

By DAVID ROYSE
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Federal authorities investigating last week's terrorist attacks have ordered state officials to seal the drivers license records of people of certain nationalities.

Such records, which include names, addresses and driving infractions, are public information under Florida law.

Bob Sanchez, spokesman for the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, declined Wednesday to elaborate on which countries are involved or provide other details.

Federal officials have named 19 people _ including 15 believed to have lived in Florida _ who hijacked the four planes used in the attacks on New York and Washington.

Members of the media, including The Associated Press, over the last several days have requested and received license records of several of the suspects, as well as those of other Floridians believed to be targets of the federal investigation.

Many of the subjects of the investigation come from the Middle East, South Asia and Central Asia.

The records include information on whether an individual had a previous drivers license and where it was issued.

On Wednesday, the department denied further requests for such records. Sanchez said federal law enforcement officials had requested the change.

He said federal agencies, which he declined to name, had given the department a list of criteria to use in determining whether to release individual records.

"The criteria had to do with what nationality they are and a time period" for when the drivers licenses were issued, Sanchez said. He declined to disclose the time period.

Officials noted that during ongoing law enforcement investigations, some records may be exempt from the open records laws.

But Barbara Petersen, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, a Tallahassee-based watchdog group, said that exemption only applies to records created as part of an investigation.

"It does not apply to records that are merely pulled into an investigation," Petersen said. "This is clearly a misinterpretation of the law."